A FOX OF FRIENDSHIP
by Fanficteller
Summary: In a post-ice age North America. After her father is killed in the fight with a fox, Judy kills it in revenge, only to be transformed into a fox herself. To change back to bunny, Judy starts a dangerous journey to the mystical mountain, accompanied by her own worst enemy, a fox cub named Nick, who shows her the true side of the foxes in a way she'd never imagined.
1. Chapter 1: Three Bunnies

**Hello there!**

 **Welcome to read my new fanfiction – FRIENDSHIP OF THE FOX - the mix of between Brother Bear movie's plot and surroundings and Zootopia characters, with my own edits.**

 **I have been this fanfiction as one of my idea since the autumn 2016 and I managed to finish the first chapter in December 2016, which I already** **published in my Deviantart-page but I also decided to publish it here.**

 **I hope that all of you enjoy the reading, and my apologizes if you suddenly happen to spot some errors in the text while reading.**

 **HAPPY READING!**

 **(I don't own neither Brother Bear nor Zootopia. Disney owns them.)**

* * *

FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 1: THREE BUNNIES.

Long time ago, in the cave in somewhere post-ice age North America

Old rabbit doe with the light grayish fur, tuft of hair between of her ears and red-brown eyes, was trying to bring the light in the cave by lighting the fire by hitting two sharp rocks against each others near the pile of wood. This fails for couple times until with the third attempt the succeeds and the campfire wood catches fire.

Old rabbit doe, who is seen bearing a Totem of _Wolf of Wisdom_ on her neck, stands up and turns to the large group of younger rabbits, who were sitting in an arch around her and with the gentle smile, old doe began to speak to the young ones with the native language.

 _"This story was born a long ago, back in the time when the earth was still young and when great mammoths still roamed on the face of earth."_

Old doe picks up the bowl filled with paint made by offerings of nature from the ground and drew the pictures of three rabbits to the stone wall.

 _"The story tells about the paths of three rabbits… my father, my little sister and me myself."_

 _"When me and my sister were still young little bunnies, we both were taught that the world is full of secrets... wonders... and magic."_

Old doe then waves her paw towards the great paint of the great three-pointed mountain above of them.

The paint's great three-pointed snowy Mountain raises with all mighty above above of the sea of clouds far away from the bunnies cavern, and the mountain's mighty was crowned with the bright yellow-red _Northern Lights_ dancing all around of the sky above of the mountain top.

 _"We were taught that this mysterious magic came from the ever-changing Lights that dance across the sky."_

The elder rabbit shaman, named Bonnie Hopps, dressed in polar bear's white hooded fur coat, is walking with the walking stick through the snowy pass ways of the Mountain, until she arrives to the snowy mountain cliff and removes her hood from over of her head and watches with the gently smile at the dancing _Lights_ above of herself and the cliff, where is seen running various animals in spirit-like forms.

 _"The shaman doe of our village, my mother herself, told us that these Lights are in fact the spirits of those who lived long before us, our ancestors, who had the power to make changes in our world."_

the spiritual figure of fawn runs in the _Lights_ , and is soon followed by the adult caribou.

 _"Like how from the small things becomes big."_

Spirits, in the forms of in the air floating bright blue and yellow forms, descend gently down from the sky and lands to the ground around of Bonnie's feet and turns the snowy ground under of her feet into lush green and flowery ground of spring.

 _"When the cold and long winter turns to warm and blooming spring."_

 _"And how one thing always changes into another thing."_

Bonnie soon kneels down and picks the tiny rock to her paw from the ground, raising it to the air. The rock is then lifted magically from her paws into the air and the spirits surrounds the rock. Then the red and yellow lights began to circle around of the rock, turning magically its form.

 _"But the greatest change I ever saw was my beloved little sister, a doe, who_ _ _desperately wanted to be a mature woman, but had to go__ _through the greatest journey of her life, in which she saw and learned much about the another world within our own... in another one's eyes!"_

 **Meanwhile...**

Elsewhere in the wild lands far away from the mountain, young and slender gray-furred rabbit doe named Judith "Judy" Hopps was running through the hilly fields for her life like she was chased by someone or something.

But instead of being in horror and distress, she had the joyful smile on her face.

"Get down!" She shouted, waving her paws in the air.

Nearby in the same fields, there was two another rabbits, who were sitting on three piled canoes waiting for Judith's return from her gathering trip.

The older one of them, a grayish brown rabbit who was wearing the bear fur coat, was called with the name Stu Hopps and the another light brown-furred rabbit doe, who was wearing the blue-grey wolf fur coat, was called with the name Jill Hopps,

Suddenly Stu's ear caught Judith's shouting from far away.

"What?" Stu said confused while looking to the direction from where Judith's cry came from.

Jill rolled her eyes in annoyance after hearing her little sister's warning cry.

"Has baby sister once again antagonized the angry cougar and got it to chase her?" Jill asked from herself and her father.

"Get down! Hurry! Get down!" Judith shouted again when she appeared from behind of the hill.

From behind of hill after Judith, instead of angered cougar, appeared the large herd of musk oxen, who were chasing in all fours her as stampede right behind of her, not very happy expression on their faces. Both Stu and Jill were shocked by this.

"HOLLY…!" Jill shouted in horror after realizing what in fact was after Judith… or what she had antagonized while she was gone.

"JUDITH!" Stu shouted quite loudly with the scolding voice before he jumped in the cover behind of canoes Jill right behind of him.

Judith managed to jump over the canoes right between of Stu and Jill and all three rabbits quickly get down and leaned against the canoes to avoid the herd's hooves right at the moment when the first ones musk oxen jumped over them and their canoes.

"WOO HOO, AH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!" Judith laughed heartily at this unlike the others.

During of the stampede Jill got the hit to the backside of her head from one of the jumping fawn musk ox's hoofs. She lowered a bit down than the others, moaning in pain and holding her head with her paws.

Soon the herd had passed them and they continued the stampede to elsewhere after Judith, unaware of the fact that they just had passed her already.

Stu and Jill were still shocked about what had just happened, but Judith only giggled for it for while until she finally managed to hold it back to get some breath

"By my ears! Judith! You were supposed to find some food, not cause the stampedes!" Stu said with the scolding tone to Judith, who seemingly just ignored the tone how Stu just scolded her.

"What did you even do to make them to stampede?" Stu asked again.

"Never attempt to milk a sleeping musk ox, which you mistakenly consider to be a female, especially if the certain musk ox happens to be the leader of the herd." Judith said simply, with the grin on her lips.

"These guys do not seem to know what the words "humble apology", "innocent accident" nor "explanation" even means. Lucky that the size and speed is on our side." Judith added.

Jill then, after she had fully recovered from the shock the stampede had caused and yet blaming Judy from the hit of musk ox's hoof to the back of her head, angrily lunged at Judith and knocked him over to the ground.

Stu watched from aside as his two daughters wrestled with each other on the ground, shaking his head to their childish act.

Jill, however, as older and a bit stronger from the two of them, got with ease the upper paw from Judith and pinned her to the ground, and much to Judith's horror and disgust, she started slowly drain the drop of spit from her mouth towards Judith's face.

"No, Jill. No, no, no, no. Don't. Don't. No, JILL! UGH, COME ONE! THAT'S DISGUSTING! DON'T JILL, DID YOU HEAR ME?! NO!" Judith pleaded while trying to struggle out from Jill's grip and avoid the drop of Jill's spit as it slowly approached her face.

But Jill didn't stop. She ignored Judith's pleads and continued doing this...

...until Stu finally had enough of this and interfered to the scene by grabbing from Jill's hood and pulling her off from Judith - being really close to prevent Jill's spit from successfully land on Judith's face.

"Hey! Will you two knock it off?" Stu said with the scolding tone.

Judith jumped on her feet and, because she had failed to avoid Jill's drop of spit, wiped the spit off from her cheek and tried attack Jill in return. But noticing this in time, Stu grabbed to Judy from her hood as well and put them both to the tight head lock.

"You two adolescent bunnies should be ashamed of yourself. Try to at least act like adults and not like the fighting brats." Stu scolded his daughters.

"Come on, father. It's just one day. And after this day, she won't treat me like that anymore." Judy said with the sinister look targeted to Jill.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot. Today is the big adulthood ceremony. However, it doesn't matter what the spirits say, you'll always be a baby sister, even tomorrow." Jill said, quite mocking tone.

Judith could not take that anymore and lunged annoyed towards Jill, despite being hold back by Stu's head lock.

"Oh, yeah?! Well, wait 'till I get my totem!" Judith said annoyed.

"Oooh, baby sister." Jill mockingly said with the stupid-looking grin on her face, while waving with the mocking attitude her fingers in front of Judith's face.

That was the last straw. Two sisters immediately engaged each others to the fierce fist fight, even though they were both still in Stu's head locks.

"Girls, knock it off." Stu tried to calm down his daughters while trying to hold the sisters back from each others.

It wasn't use. Girls were so focused to fighting that both didn't either heard or simply ignored Stu's words.

Punches targeted to the heads and the filthy insults from the girls mouths flew from side to side, until Stu had enough of this and got no better solution to calm down her daughters but to knock hard their heads together.

BIG KNOCK!

And the sisters finally, though with reluctance, calmed down grunting in pain.

"I SAID, KNOCK IT OFF." Stu said loudly while tightening the grip of his head locks around of his daughters necks. Still, Stu had to struggle to keep his struggling daughters under control.

"We came here to fish salmons, not engage each others into childish fist fights nor cause the stampedes among the other mammal tribes. The quicker we get these fish, the faster we get to home and your ceremony. So put your rivalry aside and try somehow to get along with each other for a few hours. Okay, Jill?" Stu said with the scolding tone turning from struggling Judith to Jill.

Stu's tight head lock seemed to be more effective to Jill than to Judith, because she immediately gave up from struggling back.

"Alright, alright. Whatever you say, father." Jill said, without struggling back.

"Alright. Okay Jud…" Stu said turning back to Judith and noticed much to his confusion that Judith had mysteriously escaped/disappeared from his head lock.

"What...?!" Stu exclaimed with the surprised tone, before he started to look around to see that where Judy had went.

"SO, WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?" They heard Judith to calling for them from the direction of the river.

Both Jill and Stu turned to the river, where Judith was already sitting in her canoe on the beach ready to take off.

"How did that girl escape from my head lock… once again?" Stu said to himself, confused yet quite amazed of Judith's mysterious ability to escape from his tight head locks, because this was already and roughly two hundredth seventy-sixth time Judy had done so.

"Who cares?" Jill said, while trying to get out from her father's head lock.

"If she would teach her secrets of escape to me, I would have escaped by the same way as soon as your eye turned away from me, father." Jill added

Suddenly, and with the humorous attitude and laugh, Stu opened his head lock around of Jill's head, causing her to fly backwards and land onto her back to the ground.

"Hah! You know that Judith will never so easily reveal her secrets to anyone… even to her own family members." Stu laughed as he rushed to pick his canoe.

Jill quickly stood up to her feet and picked her own canoe and rushed after her family.

"WHOO! YAHOO!" Judy shouted in joy raising her paddle while Stu and Jill quickly rushed after Judy, put their canoes to the water and jumped onto them.

Then, Stu and her daughters began their long way to the best fishing areas.

Judith, Jill and Stu were then canoeing for hours in the river, which was surrounded from everywhere by the huge massive waterfalls, steep rocky hills and the riversides covered by trees, while they were observed by two traveling mountain rams from the nearby cliffs and passed by the flock of geese.

 **...**

And much later, Judith, Jill and Stu arrived to the huge and high glaciers, which was covering half of the great lake on their way. And because it was quite warm climate in this part of these lands, from far above of the cliffs of glacier was falling a huge pieces of ice to the water.

Keeping an eye on the falling pieces of ice, they canoed together to the ice cave/tunnel to get to the other side of the glaciers.

Once they got through of the tunnel, they arrived to the great lake and canoed across the lake until their journey is cut by the line of waterfalls.

Once there, they went to ashore and decided to jump one by one from the rocks to another to get over the falls, carrying the canoes in their shoulders.

Stu was as older from the tree ahead of the trio, Jill followed next as secondly older and last followed Judy as younger.

Stu then stopped one of the rocks to wait his daughters, to make sure they can make it because the jump he just did was quite long even for him.

"Come on, Jill. Jump." Stu said.

Jill was not afraid of high places and bravely jumped from the above rock to another where Stu was standing.

Then was Judith's turn to jump over the cliff.

"Go ahead, Judith. You can do it." Stu encouraged.

Judith seemed being a bit hesitating of jumping, because the jump was long way and there was long way to fall down… and for the young rabbit who carried the heavy canoe on her shoulder, the jump would not be easy and worst… even completely successful.

"Go ahead, baby sister. If it is not so difficult for the big sister, it is not also to baby sister." Jill said quite mocking tone, which caused Judy to sigh in annoyance.

"Jill, what did I said back in there?" Stu said with the scolding tone, which got Jill immediately to back off.

Stu then turned back to Judy and waved his hand, gesturing Judy to try.

"Come on, Jude the Dude. Jump. You can make it. Just trust yourself and your old papa." Stu gently encouraged Judith.

Despite her a slight hesitation, Judith wasn't of course afraid of the highs and she was also perfect jumper. As the child, she and Jill had always jump races that who jumps higher and farther than another. They had do the same in the high rocks and high tree's branches, during of which Judy has learned to half-completely overcome her childhood's fear of highs.

So, Judith was about to jump to the rock where Jill and Stu were standing, but when she did and landed to the edge of the rock, she immediately lost her balance and she was about to fall.

However, Stu was quick enough to grab from his daughter's clothes and pulled her back to the top of the rock.

"Thanks father, but you shouldn't have to…" Judith said with grateful tone.

Stu took the jokingly scolding expression to his face and playfully waved scolding finger at Judith in front of her face.

"You're not yet adult woman, Judith. And your father still have to look after both of you, remember?" Stu said.

Judith nodded a bit reluctantly, because she did not wanted to anymore being treated like a baby child. Then, Stu quickly, unexpectedly and playfully pressed Judith's nose with his finger, which caused Judith's nose to twitch twice due of itch from Stu's finger.

Judith wiped her nose twice, lightly giggling for his fathers' playful act before dropping her canoe to the rock and stood up to her father's side with Jill.

"Does girls want on our way to go to snow surfing?" Stu asked playfully, already knowing the girls certain answer.

Both Judith and Jill cheered up and waving their paws in the sky after hearing their favorite game as the flock of seagulls flew above them.

 **...**

Later, Judith, Jill and Stu are in the top of the snowy steep hill in their canoes. It was long and steep way down the hill, but that doesn't frightened Rabbits.

"Last one down there gets wash all the laundry for a week." Stu said playfully, as he knew how much Judith and Still hated laundry shifts. Besides, they were one of few things from which Judy and Jill were always competing.

"Agreed!" Judith said without hesitation this time. She had eager wish to beat Jill in this and send her to laundry shifts for a week.

"Agreed!" Jill said, turning then to Judith.

"Get ready to lose and have laundry shifts for a week, baby sister." Jill said. Quite arrogantly in Judith's opinion.

"In your dreams, big sister." Judith said back and get ready.

Stu shook his head to his daughters strong spirit of competition.

"Are you ready girls? On your mark, get set, GO!"

They all pulled with their paddles their canoes on the move to slip down the snowy hill. Stu first, Jill secondly and Judith finally.

Judith, Jill and Stu laughed heartily out of fun, as three bunnies both slid and surfed with their canoes down the snowy hill with the high speed, as they directed with their paddles their surf.

They even tried to impressive each others with the quick and sharp turns, ski jumps from the snow mound or cliffs and a staggering stunts in the air.

"Check this, girls!" Stu said as he did the longest ski jump from the snow mound and landed down in much lower part of the hill, far in ahead of his daughters.

"That's all what you got, father? Check this out." Judith said and made quite similar ski jump yet with much higher height above of the treetops of the line of snowy spruces, sliding along their treetops until she finally landed to the snowy ground.

"What is that amateur-act, baby-sister? Take look on this!" Jill said and an added boost to her speed, which helped her to make the longest ski jump from the highest snowy cliff and make a few cool somersaults in the air before landing to the soft snow.

Finally, in the feet of the hill, they did the final ski jump over the small cliff and landed to the water one by one, Judith of course the last one, but she didn't cared. Only one thing what really had matter to her, was the fun time with her family.

 **...**

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the wilderness...

Bonnie had exited from the three-pointed mountain and began her long way back to her tribes home in Bunnyburrow with the gift from the Great Spirits for her daughter Judith in home.

During on her way through the woods and fields to the river, where her own canoe was waiting for her, Bonnie arrived to the hilly field where tribe of caribous has been camped.

Bonnie passed peacefully through the camp without disturbing the caribous, who just peacefully allowed her to pass or they simply didn't care of her presence.

Bonnie by chance met the fellow caribou shaman of this tribe and friendly greeted her by waving her paw, which was answered by caribou shaman, who waved friendly her hoof at Bonnie as she continuing her way.

 **...**

Later, Judith, Stu and Jill had arrived to their favorite and secret fishing area near the small waterfall of the small river in the woods. They visited there every time when the salmon flocks were on their way to upstream in mating season and every time they visited there, they had always a huge salmon catch to bring home.

However, Judith had once again disappeared after they arrived to this place.

"Judith! Judith, we have no time for playing Hide-and-Seek game. We have so much work to do." Stu called, hoping that Judith could hear him. She had always the sharp sense of hearing so why she would not be able to hear him.

However, there was no answer, which worried Stu and he was about to go to look for her but Jill disagreed by telling her father that despite the fact Judith wasn't yet an adult woman, she was still old enough to take care of herself.

Besides, Jill also reminded him that they had a bit hurry to get some wish and hurry for Judith's ceremony, although she a bit hoped that they'll arrive a bit late from the ceremony, for what she could blame Judith.

Though Stu was worried for Judith's safety in these wild lands, he was a bit reluctantly agreed with Jill. So, he and Jill get to the work without Judith this time.

Stu had brought with him some fabric web to fish salmons. When one big flock of salmons was swimming just at the right time to the upstream, Stu and Jill quickly took one of the webs, stepped into the water and sunk the web into the water to the path of the flock and that deep that the salmons were able to swim over it.

When the flock was right above of the web, Jill and Stu pulled the web out of the water and caught half of the flock.

"Nice catch or what, Jill?" Stu asked with the eager smile on his face.

Jill nodded with the proud wide smile.

"As the last time when we were here fishing." Jill said.

But suddenly…

"LOOK OUT! OUT OF WAY!"

Before Stu and Jill had time to react to this, a huge mammoth stampeded towards them from the woods. It ran between of them and cuts the web full of salmons with its tusks in half and splats the water on the rabbits

Wet, surprised and slightly shocked rabbits watched after the half-stampeded mammoth and realized that Judith was riding on its neck laughing heartily with the smug smile of pride, spreading out her arms in "TADAA" style as the mammoth rushes through the woods.

Stu just shook his head to her daughter with the amused smile in his lips, but Jill only rolled her eyes in annoyance for Judith's childish action which happened to cost them their good salmon catch and web.

Judith was so focused of showing her father and sister her mammoth-riding skills that she didn't notice the tree branch before it knocked Judith off mammoths back and caused her to fall into the pit of mud.

This made Jill to burst into laughter.

"Bravo, baby sister! Such of pity if that tree did not liked the show. Besides, that mud suits you." Jill laughed when Judith stood up to her feed, ears lowered down and her body covered by mud. Judith growled in annoyance at Jill's teasing as she started to wipe off some mud from her face.

"Alright, enough of girls. No more teasing of each other, mud baths nor mammoth-riding for today. We have lots of work to do now. Luckily I packed more webs with me before we left from the village." Stu said.

"Judith. Come here. We need every paw to help each others to get some salmons… but first, get some bath in the river for you and your muddy clothes" Stu suggested to Judith as she pulled a new fabric web from his packs.

Judith nodded lightly as she slowly went behind the trees to undress herself, still starring at still mockingly giggling Jill with the annoyed look.

 **...**

Later, Judith, Jill and Stu were Judith were canoeing in the big lake between of walrus-filled rocks and huge glaciers.

"Hey girls. Look, there!" Stu said to his daughters and pointed to the water.

Judith and Jill turned their attention to their father, but were quite confused that what Stu actually meant by "look."

Looking for a while around, Judith and Jill realized what Stu meant. They noticed that they've crossed paths with the flock of killer whales, which appears to the surface to catch some breath and spraying the water out from the holes in their heads.

"Judith, be careful, one is coming right next to you." Stu warned.

Judith turned her head to the right side and right next to her appeared a huge female killer whale to the surface to a breath of oxygen. Judith could not resist the temptation and landed her paw onto whale's back, rubbing its wet skin before it dove back to the abysses.

Judith followed its going until its tail rose into the air and it landed back to the water with the huge splats, from which the water flew over Judith as the brief rain.

Judith laughed at this while wiping the water off her face.

Judith then got an idea about the splats and she teasingly threw some water with her paddle over Jill from behind.

Surprised, wet and annoyed Jill turned around to look with the sinister look at Judith, knowing that it was her who threw the water on her.

Judith only whistled, trying to look an innocent, but because of that, she failed to notice a tail of another killer whale in next to her, which was rose up in the air and was about to splat the water right next to her.

"Judith, look out!" Stu warned but he was too late.

As Judith was about to turn to her father to ask why or look out for what, a tail smashed to the water and caused the mega splat, which knocked Judith's canoe, turning it inside out and taking Judith underwater with it.

In underwater, Judy noticed a huge male killer whale, which was quite fast and threateningly approaching right towards her… and it yet was about to open its mouth. Knowing that such of animals can sometimes be quite unpredictable and some of them have even eaten rabbits in the water, Judy went in a panic and waved her paws in the water in order to get out the water.

Finally, before the killer whale collided with Judith, Stu and Jill helped Judith to turn her canoe right way around.

"Well, Did the bath good for you, baby sister?" Jill asked with mocking tone before laughing at Judith's wet fur.

"Very funny, Jill." Judith said darkly before rubbing her head with her paw and wiped the water off her face and squeezing her ears to dry.

"Alright, alright, enough, girls. Now, come on. We have to hurry to our village." Stu said with a scolding tone and continued paddling, Jill right after him.

Judith rubbed her wet head yet one more time, before she grabbed to her paddle and followed the others.

 **...**

Meanwhile, in the another side of the river, Bonnie was also canoeing along the river back to her village, smiling gently as she waved on her way her paw to their neighbor, Otterton, who was with his whole family fishing the salmons from the same river and they waved their paws back to her as she passed them.

Some distance away she waved at the deer mother and her young fawn. Even though Bonnie didn't mean to be rude to the deer family, deer turned quickly around after seeing and sensing her presence and directed her fawn into the woods and soon disappeared from the sight.

Bonnie understood the reason. Unlike with the otters, who were her tribe's close friends, some animals rather avoided the rabbits, because even though her tribe was mostly peace-loving vegetarians, not counting in eating salmons they fish all year round, they sometimes had to hunt the other animals for food for the long the winters, skins and fur for garments and bones for spears to defend themselves from the cold winters and some predators. During the late-spring, summer and the first half of autumn, her tribe remained as vegetarians leaving the other prey animals mostly alone.

However, Bonnie did not allowed that to bother her and she continued her way back home

It didn't took long when Stu and her daughters arrived to the place where they where able to see a high and vertical cliffs near the coasts of the ocean, in one of which was in middle of the rock a large cave-like crack.

It was the place where the tribe of Bunnyburrow kept and performed their ceremonies.

Right in the moment, the tribe members of Bunnyburrow were preparing for Judith's today's ceremony by drawing animals to the wall of the cave – especially the three-pointed Mountain with _Northern Lights_ – or preparing large bonfires by lifting upright the tree trunks, whose top sides the bunnies had attached large deer antlers. After this, the rabbits pilled the fresh wood bundles around of the feet of the trunks.

During of the preparations of the ceremony, there was some rabbits who were making the improvements to their spears, young bunnies playing with paint messing with it each others or some rabbit mothers giving to their young daughters jewelries made by offerings of nature before they nuzzled each others noses together all around of the cave.

 **...**

Meanwhile, Judith, Jill and Stu, had finally arrived back in their home village, which was the small forest circled by the open ring and there were various rabbit holes around of each tree entering to the rabbit warrens underground and around of some of the entrances of their warrens had built shelter made from the mammoth tusks and skin. Those ones, who did not lived in underground, lived all around of the Bunnyburrow village in the large tents, which were made from the animal skins and bones of their hunted animals and some of them were lifted up above of their tents entrance to hang the animal heads to scare off the unwelcome strangers.

As Judith, Jill and Stu walked from the beach to the village, each of them carrying the sacks full of salmons, they were immediately greeted by over two dozen with each others in the trees, bushes or in the beach's sand and water playing little sisters and brothers of Jill and Judith.

"Hey, look! Judith's back!" One of them yelled in joy to see their big sister.

"Judith! Judith! Judith!" The little rabbit kittens cried out of joy.

While Stu and Jill took their sacks to further of the village, some little sisters and brothers brought a big basket, to which Judith started soon to empty her sack's contents.

"Hey, Judith. Today is your great day, right?" One of Judith's little brothers asked eagerly, to which Judith answered with the nod and smile.

"Judith, are you excited about getting your spirit rock today?" One of Judith's little sister, named Cotton Hopps, asked.

Judy laughed and shook her head.

"Oh, no, no, no, no and no. It's not a rock, you little dummy-heads. It'll be my totem." Judith explained.

"Ooh." The children said in unison with excitement and interest.

"What you believe it to be, Judy?" Asked another of Judith's little brothers.

"Well, who knows, because you never know what it might be. But I have my own guesses. I've trained lately my own survival skills in the wild and I've been working so hard and my best to be worth of whatever my totem is gonna be. I bet it's probably a saber-toothed tiger for bravery, or strength, or greatness…" Judy said while she closed the basked, tied it up and prepared to lift it up from the ground and tie it up to tree.

"But hey, there's many various choices. What in your opinion would fit me perfectly?" Judith asked, not noticing that Jill had appeared out of nowhere to the scene and sneaked behind of Judith's back.

"What about a mammoth for our fat-headed mammoth rider?" Jill asked teasingly.

This got the children to giggle or openly laugh at Jill's suggestion. Judith, however, took the unimpressed and a bit annoyed expression on her face, which caused her to drop her ears down and she mumbled in annoyance at this.

"Just make sure you get that basket tied up and firmly… not like that you did in the last time, and the last time before that, you remember?"

Of course Judith remembered what happened the last time… and the last time before that.

Thanks to her careless tying up then, which had caused the baskets to fall from the trees to the ground, the group of bandit raccoons were about to steal their baskets when they were unguarded but they were spotted and ultimately stopped by rabbits.

But it wasn't nothing yet, compared to the worse what happened some time after that.

In the last time, when the baskets fell again, almost all salmons were eaten by trio of grizzly bears while the rabbits were elsewhere, or they did not dare to stand against the grizzly bears because even with the spear, rabbits had no match for the bigger and much stronger bears.

After when all salmons were gone, Grizzly bears leaved from the scene, leaving behind only the empty and damaged baskets. Because of this, Judith had receive a big reproach from her fellow tribe members for the long time.

It took the long time when the tribe eventually granted Judith one last chance.

"If something happens to salmons yet again, this is the last time when you're responsible for the salmons, baby sister." Jill said.

"Relax, Jill, and don't worry. Our village's borders are double guarded for those dumb giants and nasty raccoons and we're better prepared for them. This time, no stupid bear nor raccoon is gonna get near these salmons." Judy said and lifted the basked up to the tree.

Jill rolled her eyes annoyed.

"What if you just tie it up." Jill said, quite rudely and turned away.

Now it was Judith's turn to get annoyed.

" _What if you just tie it up._ " Judith said, imitating with the deep and mocking tone Jill's words, using her paw as a mouth, before Judith sticks her tongue out at Jill behind of her back.

"That big sister is unbelievable. Someone beautiful day, Jill… I will make you regret that you were born." Judith silently mumbled as she continued lifting the basket to the tree.

Suddenly…

"SHE'S BACK!" Someone tribe member rabbit yelled to the villagers from the Border of the Bunnyburrow village.

"HEY, EVERYBODY! BONNIE'S BACK!" Shouted another male rabbit.

Hearing this, most of the villager rabbits, children, males, does and even some slowly-moving elders began to run toward the cave from every corner of the village, from every burrow under of every village's tree.

Also Stu heard this and the big smile appeared to his face after knowing that his wife had return from her long way to the three-pointed mountain in the north and back to the village.

"Hey children. Your mother is back. Quickly, everybody to the cave! Come on" Stu shouted as he and Jill started to run towards the cave with the rest of the villagers.

Also the children from around of Judith started to run after them cheering in joy.

Judith hurried with the tying the basked to the tree. She absolutely did not want to be late from her own ceremony.

"C'mon Judith!" One of her little brothers called for her.

"C'mon, c'mon." Judith mumbled impatiently as she toured the rope twice around the tree and made a tight knot. This time bery tight.

"C'mon, Judith, we have to go." Another Judith's little sister called.

"Mother has your rock." Another little sister reminded.

"Judith's, we'll be late, c'mon." Another little brother called.

"Okay, okay. I'm coming, I'm coming." Judith said eagerly after she had finished her job and she started to run after her little brothers and sisters.

However, the weight of the heavy salmon basket was too much for "once again carelessly" tied knot and it eventually gave up completely. The basket fell to the ground, opened by the rough landing and quickly there was fresh salmons in the ground around of the basket.

The sound of basket's landing got Judith's attention and she turned around to see what happened.

"Seriously? Not again." She said to herself in annoyance.

Judith quickly turned to the cave and then back to the basket, asking silently from herself; should she go back to tie a fallen basket to a tree reallocated or go to her ceremony from which she was probably already late.

The salmons would be stolen by those raccoons or eaten by those bears again but worse for her was to be too late from her own ceremony.

"Bah! Later. After ceremony." Judith simply said and keep running.

END OF THE CHAPTER 1.

 **Here it was. The first chapter of Friendship of the Fox.**

 **I hoped you guys liked it.**


	2. Chapter 2: Totem of Friendship with Fox

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 2: TOTEM OF FRIENDSHIP... WITH FOX.**

 **ENJOY THE READING**

In the cave, there was at first the traditional ceremony festivities, in which the rabbits played drums and Flutes while some rabbits, the warriors and hunters who were dressed into their skins of their the biggest catch in their life.

There was some who were wearing the great eagle's skull upon of his and using it's large feathers as the wings and eagle's tail.

Some who were instead wearing the mountain sheep's white or brown skin and the headdress made from the sheeep's skull with the sheep's large horns.

There was some the most bravest rabbit hunters who were dressed into the skins of the big predatory animals such like grizzly bears, cougars, wolves and some were even wearing the skins of the saber-toothed tigers, showing that these rabbits were the bravest enough to face such of bunny-eating predators.

Some of them were instead of wearing he skins and moose's, caribou's and deer's antlers.

Some of them were wearing the skins of the raccoons, some badgers', some porcupines', some turtles', some squirrels', some salmons...

And some others bravest ones of the tribe were wearing the thick hairy of the musk oxen and the mammoths and some of them were even using their heads with the large horns or tusks...

And the most bravest ones of the tribe were wearing the skins of their natural enemies... the foxes. In this tribe, killing the fox was the most famous and the greatest act of all and the rabbits, who've killed the fox and were wearing the fox skin as the trophy, were the most honored ones. Because the fox was mentioned as their natural enemy, every rabbit in the tribe, from the young infant to the old one, knew very well how dangerous the foxes were as well as how sneaky, cunning and shifty they were of all animals in the world. That's why the foxes were very hard to be hunted down and killed. And moreover, fox hunt was among the most dangerous hunts ever, because it always ended up either to killing or to be him/herself killed by the natural enemy.

But none of them didn't bother to think about that but instead enjoy the festivities.

Using the skins and horns, heads, skulls and feathers, the hunters were dancing in the rhythm of the music in middle of the cave.

However, most of the rabbits were just watching the dance of the hunters from aside.

During of festivities, young little grey rabbit girl, daughter of the mother rabbit of the four child, escaped from her rabbit mother's grip to middle of the dancing rabbits, as her attention was in her little baby and two of her sons.

The young rabbit doe, with the happy and eager smile on her lips, ran through of the dancing rabbit hunters, who began to be very wary with their steps in order to not accidentally trample the little girl under of their feet during of their dance.

The little bunny then ran away from the middle of the dancing hunters and headed to there where most of the villagers had gathered.

There was Bonnie incoming, carrying the torch in her paw as she walked through the villagers towards the bonfire.

Bonnie then threw the torch to the bonfire, which burst into the flames in minutes, due to being covered while the rabbits burst into the cheering at this and following Bonnie's example, they all knelt down respectfully to the large paint of the tree-pointed mountain with the _Northern Lights_ to respect the Great Spirits who had lived before anyone of them in the cave.

Suddenly, Bonnie felt that somebody was right behind her, tugging at her fur coat's hem and calling her by name.

"Bonnie. Hey, Bonnie." The young voice said.

Bonnie turned around and happily and gently laughed as she saw the same little rabbit girl who ran from her mother.

"Well, hello there, sweetheart." Bonnie said gently as the girl begged her to take her in her arms.

Bonnie chuckled at this and gently lifted her up from the ground with her paws.

"What a big girl." Bonnie said as she looked at the bunny girl in her arms, nuzzling motherly the little girl's nose with her own.

Bonnie then turned to the villagers, lifting the little girl up to her shoulders.

"My friends. Once again, were all gathered to this cave for the ceremony, which has been carried for many years from generation to generation. As you all know, when each of us comes of right age, the Great Spirits reveal to us a totem that helps guide us through our lives." Bonnie said to the crowd.

"Some of us are guided by courage." Bonnie said, referring with her paw at one large and muscular brown-furred rabbit, who wore the saber-tooth tiger's skin. Rabbit crossed his arms and smiled proudly.

"Some of us by the wisdom of leader, like the chief of our village and Bunnyburrow tribe, my husband, Stu Hopps." Bonnie said, referring with her paw and with the loving look in her face at Stu Hopps who was sitting among his and Bonnie's family among the crowd. He got from many rabbit around of him the loud cheers for their chieftain.

"Others by patience." Bonnie said as she walked towards the rabbit family and mother to which child belonged. Bonnie lift the little girl from her shoulder and handed her over to her mother, who hugged her daughter.

"And some of us by beauty." Bonnie said, jokingly referring herself.

This caused a light chuckling among the crowd. Even Bonnie giggled lightly for her own joke.

Hearing this, Stu let out the deep sigh. His wife's words had their own point as he remembered his and Bonnie's first meet long ago, before he became the tribe leader and Bonnie became the tribe shaman, in the beautiful day of summer at the high-grass field where he as much younger had accidentally crossed paths with the most beautiful bunny girl he had seen in his life. They quickly developed a deep friendship and spend most of their lives together since the day of their very first meet. It did not take long when they developed romantic relationship and eventually married each others, becoming the leaders of the tribe. Stu has also told Judith that from all his daughters, only Judith resembled greatly her mother when she was in her age and that looking at Judith he always remembered how did her mother look in her youth.

This also made Jill a bit jealous to her little sister because of having herself her father's eyes instead of her mother's, tuft of gray hair on top of her head and fluffy cheeks but not any features from her mother. Jealousy was one of many reasons why Jill sometimes teased her little sister.

Bonnie soon returned to her place of ceremony. The wood made chair, which was mostly covered with thick bearskin, and to it was attached the antlers of the moose, which were hanging right above of Bonnie's head.

"Judith, my daughter." Bonnie gently called as she sit down to her chair.

Stu, Jill and all 275 other Judith's little and big brothers and sisters encouraged Judith to stand up and go.

They did not need to tell her twice, because this was what Judith had waited all the day and she was too excited to even hear her family's encourages.

She quickly, but still respectfully, walked to her mother and knelt before her.

Bonnie took from next to her a bowl full of red-brown nature's paint and gently painted the ceremonial paint on her daughter's face… to both of her cheeks and between of her violet eyes.

"Are you nervous, my daughter?" She asked gently.

Judith took a breath once deeply and calmly when her ceremonial paint was ready.

"Maybe a little. Just excited, mother." Judith answered, with the shy smile and her ears leaning against the back of her head in respect, even though they should be upright by the excitement as usually.

Bonnie chuckled gently. "You should be, my dear. It's a good one."

Judith took a sweet smile while looking at her mother's eyes lovingly, respectfully and trustingly with her purple eyes. … but she was still quite excited about her totem she was about to have as the gift from the Great Spirits through of her mother's paws.

"Judith Hopps, my daughter… on my way far away from Bunnyburrow village and tribe, I have been to the Mountain where the _Lights_ touch the earth, and there the Great Spirits have revealed to me your totem. To become a mature woman, your actions must be guided by one thing." Bonnie said as she put the bowl aside and took out something wrapped in fabric.

Now it was the most exciting moment and not only Judith, but the whole crowd was excited when Bonnie started open the packet.

"Your totem is..."

Judith's nose twitched, her smile widened and her ears lifted slowly up by tension as the packed was slowly opened.

"Friendship." Bonnie declared, as she showed to Judith her totem in the shape of the red fox from under the fabric.

Judith's ears and excited smile lowered by the hidden shock and she was more than just confused about this.

"What?" Judy said secretly disappointed of this.

"Yes, my dear. Friendship." Bonnie said as she put the totem on Judith's neck.

"You're kidding me, aren't you? A friendship with a fox?" Judith said while checking her totem in her fingers.

"One of the three the most strongest bonds in the life, which connects and unites all living things together." Bonnie said.

Judith heard some giggling behind of her and quickly checked over of her shoulder, seeing Jill teasingly giggling at her behind of her back while trying to hide it or hold herself and Stu just shrugged at her.

"Maybe its either my mother or one of the Spirits who has made a tiny mistake. Who wants to trade with me?" Judith whispered to the crowd.

Suddenly, Bonnie grabbed from Judith's cheek, pulling her close of herself.

"I HEARD THAT, JUDITH HOPPS. The Spirits never make mistakes with totems neither with their decisions. Besides, there is no trading." Bonnie scolded her daughter before she knocked her daughter's head with the stick as a tiny punishment.

Then her scolding expression and tone of voice turned into gentler and she took from her daughter's paw with both of her paws.

"Oh, Judith, my daughter. The friendship is a mixture of a loyalty, trust, respect, care and even love. They are precious makings of the true friendship between two living things." Bonnie said.

Judith was still quite confused.

"Even with the foxes, mom? Despite the fact we're honest, and willingly working rabbits and they are sneaky, cunning and thieving foxes and were usually natural enemies with each others?" Judith said.

"Most of the animal tribes, especially we rabbits, might see the foxes as shifty and untrustworthy mammals… but even they have some goodness in them. Not all of them are what others have been saw or said about them." Bonnie explained.

Judith, even without noticing herself, was lowering her head until Bonnie placed her paw gently to Judith's chin and raised her head a little bit.

"But as long as you have your totem and you follow it, you will soon, or even unexpectedly, find out what I mean, Judith. Let friendship guide your actions in your path, then one day you'll be a mature woman." Bonnie said, making Judith to smile lightly.

"And when you do, we'll place your mark among of those of our ancestors." Bonnie said, showing her daughter the wall, in where was printed with the nature's paint hundreds of paw prints of Judith's and many other rabbits ancestors.

Judith went closer of the wall and put her hands to hit, watching with the deep respect every red-brown paw prints of hers and many other's ancestors that had lived through of the many generations long before her.

Then Bonnie arrived next to her, grabbed gently from Judith's wrist and lifted her paw up, while the entire crowd and Judith's family cheered up to her.

"I'll be then so proud of you, my dear Judith." Bonnie said trustingly and lovingly to Judith and locked her into loving hug and Judith hugged her back.

Still, unlike her mother, Judith wasn't quite pleased about her totem, but still she kept her confusion and disappointment in hide from her and the others.

 **...**

After the ceremony...

Judith walked through the half-empty village of Bunnyburrow, now letting out the sigh of disappointment.

She wasn't now quite good mood and she ignored most of the fellow tribe members and even her little and big brothers and sisters congratulations, and even the presence of their. But not wanting to be so rude to her family, she answered to them with the light smile and told them that she wanted now some time to be alone, to which her brothers and sisters agreed to.

Judith could not believe that how she would be able follow her totem by befriending with the animal who is the natural and main enemy of the rabbits.

She had heard many times over how the rabbits of the Bunnyburrow outside of their safe village or in the wild woods had been hunted down, killed and eaten by the rogue foxes. Even one of them had killed four tribe members before the rabbits had hunted it down and killed it

Another rogue one had once one night sneaked into Bunnyburrow, opened quietly one of the burrows and attempted to kidnap several rabbit children in the sack in order to take them away for food. Luckily, the fox's plans we're ruined by the arrival of the mob of the rabbit villagers who had drove the fox out.

Judith had also after the ceremony heard her mother talking with her grandfather Otto Hopps about her totem. Unlike Judith, who did not wanted to show her disbelief and disappointment to her mother, Otto was also but much openly against her totem. He also had not good experience with the foxes, for example he was attacked by rogue one when he was younger and got his left ear shredded by its teeth. Otto had survived from the encounter with the fox by killing it and he had carried with him since the encounter the fox's ear, paw and even jaws as trophies and warning to another foxes.

Because of this encounter, he had labelled the foxes as mindless savages and "the creation of the demons" himself. Due his grudge against the foxes and his family love towards his little granddaughter Judith, he was arguing with Bonnie about Judith's totem, claiming it to be instead of great spirits sent by demons or the spirits made the great mistake.

He also reminded Bonnie that she was also once attacked when she was younger by rogue fox, who bit the dickens out of her. This shocked and terrified Judith.

Bonnie, however, scolded Otto by telling him that the great spirits never make mistakes and she did not held any grudge against the foxes despite being attacked by one, just because she had accidentally and without knowing trespassed to its territory in the wild, much to Judith's and Otto's dismay.

"Spirits have made their decision and it also remains." Bonnie had said before sending Otto away.

Judith knew that most of the rabbits were mostly agree with her grandfather, but because their respect for the spirits and Bonnie was far more greater than their grudge against the foxes, they did not say anything against it. No one of them did not even teased Judith because of her totem.

Except…

"Oh. There she is!" Jill exclaimed.

Speaking the devil.

Jill was at this moment the last rabbit, whose company Judith needed right now and she turned away to avoid her.

"Come here, lover girl." Jill said, grabbing Judith from her arm, pulled her back into head lock and rubbed playfully her head.

Judith however, was not in the playing mood right now, pushed rudely Jill aside.

"Leave me alone, Jill" Judith said rudely and tried to keep moving.

Jill looked after her like a bit shocked of this, because she'd never seen Judith like that before.

"Oh, c'mon, Judith. Wait." Jill pleaded.

Judith sighed and with a reluctance she stopped and turned slowly on her sister.

"Look, Judith. I know you're quite upset. I'm sorry." Jill said.

This surprised Judith completely, because Jill never admitted at first and honestly that she's sorry for something she'd either caused or started at first. She was sometimes too stubborn to admit her mistakes, like Judith sometimes.

"What?" Judith asked with disbelief tone.

"Your totem, despite having the form of fox, I think it's really great." Jill said with the sisterly smile to Judith.

Judith was once again surprised that her sometimes unbearable sister just said that.

"What? You do?" Judith asked with disbelief.

"Yeah, even though I am not a big fan of the foxes neither. But you know, I made for you something." Jill said and started to poke around her pocket.

"Really?" Judith said with the out of nowhere and without even noticing appeared eager smile on her face.

However, her brief happy and eager mood turned to deep annoyance and frustration as Jill unexpectedly threw with the accurate throwing the homemade flower and berry wreath towards her, which landed upon of her head.

"Now when you have to make some friendships, you gotta smell so sweet." Jill said while jumping around of Judith with the teasing smile and giggle.

Judith growled in anger and grabbed the wreath off her head and threw it to Jill's paws and pushed her hard away from herself. However, Jill still giggled, or rather openly laughed, at her teasing joke while holding her wreath in her arms.

It was the moment when Stu suddenly appeared in the picture.

"Well, well, well, isn't this nice? Instead of fighting, you're giving each other flowers." Stu said with a bit surprised but with the hearty smile as he watched his daughters.

Jill started now pick some flowers from the wreath and drop then over of Judith's head that they landed Judith's head. Much to her annoyance.

"Yeah, isn't it lovely, father? She's so in touch with her totem already." Jill said laughing, only to be again pushed away by annoyed Judith.

Stu noticed well Judith's annoyed face and knew already how she felt.

"Hey, Jill. Maybe that's enough." Stu said with the calm voice.

"What, I'm just trying to make her smell sweet for the foxes, who most certainly come to lick her face and gently eat from the paw." Jill said laughing as she was once again pushed away by Judith, who was now more than just annoyed.

"What if I go to hunt some grouse, fleece them, roast them on a spit and rub them against you? Then we'll see do you still laugh when the fox attracted by the fresh meat bites off your paw instead of eating from it or shreds your left ear just like grandfather Otto's." Judith said with the angry and threatening tone, much to Stu's dismay.

"Sorry, baby sister, but I have the wisdom of wolf as my totem and you have your friendship with the foxes. Which means that the foxes will never choose from two of us me as their friend except you. Besides, I am too wise to know that your threats only make us laugh." Jill laughed.

"Hey, knock it off and go take care of the fish." Stu said, pointing the beach.

"Okay father." Jill said, but instead of immediately going off, Jill picked the pink flower from the wreath and put it behind of her ear. Then she started to both dance and jump around of Judith and throw more flowers at her.

"Aw. So sweet, isn't it? Judith's in love with the foxes, no she's not." Jill said with teasing tone.

"Judith's in love with fox, no she's not... Judith's in love with fox, no she's not... Judith's in love with fox, no she's not... Judith's in love with fox, no she's not... Judith's in love with fox, no she's not... Judith's in love with fox, no she's not..." Jill teased

Judith was able to hear tiny giggling behind the trees, knowing that her little brothers and sisters were spying the moment from the cover. They quickly went into hide when Judith scowled at them with the sinister look..

However, Judith's anger was not targeted to them but mostly to Jill.

"Judith's in love with fox, no she's not. Judith's in love with fox, no she's not. Judith's in love with fox, no she's not." Jill kept teasing

"THAT. IS. IT!" Judith said in the pure rage and wiped angrily the flowers off her head, picked the rock from the ground and was about to throw it at Jill, until Stu grabbed nick in time from her wrist, preventing her to throw the rock.

"Judith, knock it off." Stu said and took the rock away from her.

Judith got almost an irresistible desire to chew her ears off than listen Jill's teasing words.

"Someday I'm gonna just... just... but... but she's so unbearable, so strenuous, so…" Judith angrily said to her father while angrily scowling her sister.

"Hey, Jude the Dude, calm down." Stu said as he playfully slapped her in the back of the head.

"Just because your sister's totem is the _Wolf of Wisdom_ doesn't mean she's as wise as she claims to be."

While rubbing her head, Judith slowly calmed down and turned to her father.

"What do you mean, father? Isn't Jill wiser than me as she has always said?" Judith asked, remembering well all those times when Jill had proudly labelled herself wiser than her.

"She's just trying to vaunt herself, even though in reality she is overly self-confident jerk, Judith." Stu said.

"I mean, just look at her." Stu added referring with his paw at Jill.

Jill was still dancing around throwing the flowers around and making her teasing words of "Judith's in love with fox, no she's not," that she did not noticed that she was dancing directly towards the sleeping wolf, which the rabbit hunters have brought to the village to grow up and then help them to hunt the meat to be stored for winters.

Jill accidentally stepped on its tail, which caused the wolf to wake up with the loud yelp in pain and it began to bark at Jill, showing at her its bared teeth. Jill gasped in shock, jumped backwards and quickly backed down trying to get far away from the wolf.

"HEY! WHOA! WHOA! EASY! EASY, BOY! I DIDN'T MEANT TO..." Badly surprised Jill exclaimed with the frightened and reasoning voice to wolf as she backed down.

Then, some of Jill's rival rabbit girls from the same tribe suddenly appeared out of nowhere behind of her.

"Hi, Jill. Has the tomboy finally gone soft like the baby girl now?" The leader of the group asked with the questioning look on her face and her arms crossed.

Jill gasped as she recognized the girls. Then she spotted the flowers in her paws and quickly pulled them behind of her back.

"Uh, hi, Vera. What? Me? Gone soft? What are you talking about, Vera? I'm not…" Jill said while embarrassingly backing off with her butt ahead.

Bad mistake, because she had completely forget THE WOLF, who, when Jill was close enough, opened his mouth, bared his teeth and lunged at her.

BIG SNAP OF JAWS AND JILL'S SCREAM OUT OF PAIN!

"YAAAAAAAAAAOOUCH!"

"OOOOH!" Both Judith and Stu said in unison before both of them, especially Judith who hold with her paws from her butt with the knowledge how much that could hurt, laughed heartily at this.

"LET GO! LET GO OF ME, YOU SAVAGE BEAST! LET GO, YOU WON, LET GO!" Jill screamed in misery.

"Hey, Jill. Maybe you're the one who should have received sweet smell if you want the canines to lick you instead of biting the dickens out of your butt." Judith laughed.

"THAT'S NOT FUNNY, JUDITH!" Jill screamed from aside.

"Well, you asked for it, dumb big sister." Judith whispered with the sly smile.

Judith then turned to his father, who had managed to take control over of his own laughter.

"Yeah, I guess the Spirits messed up on both of our totems." Judith said, referring to her totem.

"You know, Jude the Dude, I felt the same way in your age when your grandmother gave mine just before mine and Bonnie's marriage and long before your and your sister's birth." Stu said while throwing the rock away.

Judith let out the giggle.

"Come on, father. Get out of here." Judith said playfully slapping her father's shoulder.

"No, really. Take the look." Stu said when he picked out from his skin shirt his own totem, which had the form of Bald eagle.

"When your grandmother gave me this, I said, "the _Eagle of Guidance_? What does that mean?"

Stu paused for while and laughed as he remembered the moments from the past before putting his totem back under of his shirt.

"But now that I'm older... I know it's about being a leader. It has served me well in my time as the chieftain of Bunnyburrow tribe... although it seems that I became most likely baby-sitter for you two." Stu said as he playfully wrapped his left arm around of Judith's head and playfully rubbed her head with his right arm.

Judith pulled laughing herself out from Stu's grip, until her smile turned into serious expression of worry and she looked down to her paw.

"I just want to get my paw print on that wall in the cave." Judith said worriedly, knowing that it would take very long for that moment before she was completely ready for it.

"Just be patient, Judith. When you live by your totem, in time, you will." Stu said, with comforting and fatherly tone.

Judith's expression turned from worry to brighten.

"Really?" Judith asked.

"Guarantee it." Stu said, as he raised his right open paw at Judith.

Smiling at her father, Judith raised her own paw and grabbed from her father's paw so that her fingers were interlaced with her father's fingers and her father's fingers were interlaced with her own.

This was their family's usual sight of agreement with each others from something.

Soon, both of them continued walking towards the beach, during of which, Judith pulled her own totem to out and showed it again to Stu with a light disgust towards it.

"But father, come on, the _Fox of Friendship_... in other words it means... the friendship with fox? What do you think of this? What do you yourself think about the foxes?" Judith asked out of curiosity.

"As a chieftain of our village and tribe, I carry a big responsible for our people's safety against the foxes, when some of those ones who lives nearby forest next of our village start to get a bit too cheeky, harassing, and even too dangerous to be left alive." Stu said with the serious tone.

"And yes, I've heard many times over that they're the worst kind of predators. Always hustling some tribes or harassing others like us. With their lies… or with their claws." Stu said and wrapped in his shirt sleeve back revealing to Judith the light claw marks in his arm, made by the fox when he was younger.

Judith gasped in shock and dropped her totem out of her paw, which landed against her chest as it hanged from her neck.

"After all, we rabbits and foxes are natural enemies to each other." Stu added as he put the sleeve back over his wound and continued walking.

Judith was still a bit shocked from the claw marks on her father's arm… especially from the fact that she had the totem which meant the friendship with the animal who did those creepy scars to her father.

However, she quickly recovered from her shock and decided to ask from her father something more about the afterwards of her ceremony.

"I just heard after ceremony my mother and my grandfather's arguing about my totem. Grandfather, as he has told that the foxes are "creation of the demons," said that my totem was send by the same demons instead of the spirits and he reminded my mother about her own quite unpleasant encounter with the fox. But despite this, my mother said that even the foxes, despite being labelled as untrustworthy savages, has some goodness inside of them." Judith explained to her father.

"Do you believe so, father. Is there despite all of our unpleasant encounters with them some goodness in the foxes?" Judith asked, causing Stu to think some time about the answer for this question.

"There has been no reason to believe that due of our various unpleasant encounters with the foxes, Judith, but there's of course no reason to stand against the Great Spirits' decision about the totems… so, who knows. Do you believe so yourself?" Stu said.

Judith was thinking about for while how she can answer to that. It was harder for her to answer to his father's question than he had to answer to hers.

"Well, I don't know, father. After all of those encounters with the foxes. I mean, they're-they're sneaky, they're cunning, they're selfish, they're dishonest, they're liars, they're untrustworthy ones, they're savages, dumb predators. I mean, they're..."

Judith suddenly paused when she and Stu arrived to the place where Judith left the basket before her ceremony.

Well, there was the fresh fox's footprints and few salmons lying on the ground in the ground and the basket with its salmons were gone.

"THEY'RE EVEN THIEVES!" Judith said loudly out of surprise and annoyance.

Suddenly, the scolding and calling word "Ahem" got her turn her head to the voice's direction, only to be immediately confronted by some her fellow tribe members next of the tree to which Judith tied up the basket, whom were all looking at her the disappointed expression on their faces.

And in middle of the crowd was standing Jill Hopps herself - with the scruffy appearance from her fight with the wolf, judged by her messy fur, one droppy ear, some bruises and small claw marks, and a large hole in the backside of her leather pants, that revealed both her butt and her tail tuft - holding the rope in her paw and the disappointed expression on her face.

"You didn't tie it up, did you?" Jill asked from Judith with the scolding tone.

Judith, once again, found herself in the similar awkward moment in middle of her angry and disappointed fellow tribe members. She knew that they wanted the honest explanation for this that why one of their baskets full of salmons was gone although it was supposed to be tied up high in the tree.

"Was it a fox who opened the knot or some fat-head baby sister, who forgot to tie the basket?" Jill asked half-mockingly and half-scolding.

Embarrassingly rubbing back of her head, Judith of course in her self defense explained to them that she did tie up the basket high in the tree, until the weight of the basket got knot to give up and pulled the basket back to the ground and she had big hurry to get to her own ceremony.

"I was about to come back to tie it up after the ceremony but it, uh... kind off... slipped from my mind." Judith nervously said, defending herself.

"Well, then you should have get the totem of slow-minded and dumb ground sloth." Jill said rudely towards of Judith's face.

"Okay, that's it! Here comes!" Judith said in anger and raised her into the fist squeezed right paw to the level of their heads and drew it back in order to punch with it in middle of Jill's faces.

"KNOCK IT OFF! BOTH OF YOU!" Stu said loudly before Judith had time to punch her sister.

"One lost salmon catch and basket is not worth of pointless fist fight nor insults. We have still two baskets full of salmons left. Besides, We can always just make a new basket." Stu said in order to calm down the situation.

Jill's eyes widened angrily of this.

"What? We? Oh, no, father. It took me two long and hard weeks to make that basket." Jill said angrily and unwillingly to do such of work for two weeks again.

Judith knew that well that weaving such of basket is a hard and time consuming work. It would have take weeks before the work was done and the basket finished. Like Jill, Judith also didn't like such of job because she mostly liked to have some fun.

"Why you don't put that **_fox-lover_** to do it this time. She's the one that's messing things up all the time." Jill said referring angrily at Judith.

Now Judith grew more angrier from that " _ **fox-lover** "_ thing and eventually step aside from the scene.

"She got already three good salmon catch to be stolen and now she gave one baskets with the salmons as a gift to her fox friend! Typical Judith. Whatta black sheep of our Blood-line. Unbelievable that she even born to this family." Jill shouted.

"Watch your mouth, Jill Hopps, or I'll put you to do that basket again. You shouldn't say anything like that about your little sister. She did just innocent mistake which she admitted humbly, that's all." Stu said with the scolding tone.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! every time the same thing, father. You're always taking her side, when she does some so-called "innocent mistake" and you start to scold me or put me under house arrest instead of her. Why always me?" Jill said blaming bitterly her father for injustice between of her own daughters mistakes, especially Judith's own compared to hers.

"Well, when has been that day when you've yourself admitted honestly your own mistak…" Stu said until his words were cut off when Judith pushed her way through of them holding the spear in her paws.

"Alright, alright. Enough. You wanna your basket back, Jill? I'm gonna get it back." Judith said to her sister and departed into the woods.

Stu was stunned after seeing the spear in Judith's paws.

"Judith, wait! JUDITH!" Stu tried to call her daughter out of this, but Judith stubbornly refused to listen her father and continued after the fox's tracks towards the high rocks near of the village.

Stu then turned his disappointed and scolding expression to Jill, crossing his arms and shaking his head.

"Nice job, Jill." Stu scolded.

Jill wasn't as stunned as Stu, but he was surprised of Judith's unusual and out of nowhere appeared seriousness. She noticed Stu's disappointed expression and heard his scolding words targeted to her.

"What? What I did again?" She asked confused.

Stu sighed out of frustration and was then about to walk to different direction from Jill, until he suddenly stopped, turned back to Jill and referred her to follow him.

"Come on, Jill. We'd better apply for our spears in our paws and go after her to make sure she doesn't hurt herself because of her foolishness or do something foolish... but go dress yourself at first." Stu said seriously.

Jill sighed out of annoyance to the idea to go after her foolish baby sister.

"Whatever you say." She simply said, shrugging her shoulders and going after her father.

 **To be continued...**

 **I hoped that you enjoyed reading this chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3: The Battle Against The Fox

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 3: BATTLE AGAINST THE FOX.**

 **ENJOY THE READING**

Judith, using her rabbit instincts, followed the fox's trails by sniffing the air to find the fox's scent she had found from the trails and looking for the other traces of surroundings the fox had probably left behind.

Judith used also her very sensitive sense of hearing, it was her the secret weapon, what she uses during of hunting down the animal (mostly predator) which is a threat to her people or during of survival, when she is herself stalked by the predator.

It has saved her life many times over, but she was also one time close to lose her life when she was with her father, sister and several other her tribe members tracking and hunting down the gigantic black-furred and blood-red-eyed grizzly bear which once attacked to Bunnyburrow village, killing several tribe's warriors and cut down the tree to the ground, roughly opening the warren and picking the little bunnies to its sack made by deer skin as much as it could have reached to pick them from the tunnels to where the bear was unable to fit himself or its own paws.

The battle against the bear was rough but they barely managed to cut it down thanks to their father and his the exact stab with the spear to the bear's heart. However, the battle costed them more than half of the tribe's hunters in the fight and Judith got during the fight very bad wounds to the left side of her face from the bear's claws.

Well, it was the memory what Judith did not want to remember, because in the aftermath she had labelled as Scar-face by her fellow tribe members. However, Judith did not need to suffer as scar-faced freak for long as the wounds healed and the scars were covered by her fur.

Judith did not heard the sounds of fox's moving among the bushes nor the steps against the ground, because the fox was either far away with the fishes right now or them it was quietly hiding in somewhere, stalking her.

Suddenly, the scent grown stronger near the wooden cliffs next of the gigantic glacier, which made Judith to slow down for while.

The fox was near, she could even feel it.

But there was one question, where it is?

Suddenly, Judith heard growling nearby, canine growling, which caused her quickly jump to the nearby bush into hide. Judith knew that kind of growling. The foxes and other canine mammals always growls like that they catches the scent of someone, whose present they are not very pleased, especially if the source of the strange scent is inside of their territory.

Wolves are good example of this, because they're always so aware of their territory and even guard its borders. The wolves do not like any strange predators, and even the strange pack of their own fellow species, on their territory and they always reunites as one to defend their territory to the last wolf. Judith had heard many stories about the bloody fights for the territory between the wolf packs. But there's also some exceptions with that. They only allow the tribes of the prey mammals to trespass to their territory so that they can track and hunt them down and kill some of them for the food for their pack, let the prey mammal be from a small and thin bunny to a large and obese mammoth, even tough they rather hunt moose, deer, caribous and wild boars. Even the thought of eating meat get Judith feel a sick sometimes, even though her tribe sometimes ate meat but mostly salmons.

Judith checked all directions from the bush to see where the fox was or was everything clear. She also remembered to stay out of the wind to prevent the fox to catch her scent, which would led the fox either to run away or getting the fox to track her down.

However, there was no one in seen, for now.

Judith kept slowly, and so quietly as she could, moving forward in the bush, still unsure for the fact that there was no one in seen.

"Remember what father said… "Even though no one would be in seen in the eyes, it does not mean that no one would be present." Judith whispered to herself while still hiding in the bush.

It took ten minutes from Judith to get bored to hiding from nothing in seen but still in present, so Judith jumped out from the bush all her senses alerted before she kept moving.

The scent of the fox was strong, meaning that it was still around, but where.

Suddenly, Judith heard briefly also the sound which sounded like someone was eating something nearby.

Judith quickly hided behind the rocks and carefully glanced the area behind the corner, but there was still none in the present. The maker of those sounds was probably some raccoon eating the berries nearby or then…

Because there was a strong fox's scent in the air and there was missing basked full of salmons back in the village, Judith was sure that maker of the eating-like sounds was the fox and it was nearby in the area chewing the stolen salmons… right behind the corner of the same rock, she believed.

"I caught you now, foxy. Nowhere to run." Judith whispered and started to slowly and carefully, spear ready for the fight, approach the corner to surprise the fox before it.

But when Judy carefully glanced the area behind the corner, she found nothing from there.

Frustrated and a bit impatient, but still able to keep herself calm, Judith turned around and checked once again around of her, seeing anybody in the area

Judith snorted loudly out of frustration.

"C'mon! Where are you, you red flea-coat!" Judith whispered in annoyance and impatience. Jill making fun of her back in the village and now playing hide-and-seek game with the fox were starting to get her nerves.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of growling again, louder that two others earlier, which caused Judith to go quickly into the hide behind the corner once again.

Judith when Judith was about to search the area with her eyes once again, the small rocks and sand dropped from the above on her nose, which was making her almost sneeze.

Remembering quickly the fox around and that her sneeze could either drive the fox away or reveal her location to the fox, Judith barely and nick in time managed to hold it back.

Judith then turned her attention to above, from where the dust came from.

She then believed that she saw a glimpse of the fluffy, white-topped and red tail of fox in the cliff, before it disappeared from the sight.

"There you are." Judy whispered and started to climb after the fox.

The fox had the long head start, but Judy was barely able to trace the path of the fox by following its tracks through the trails higher and higher cliff by cliff solid rock … she believed that the fox had surely caught her scent and was trying to lose her by going far away and higher.

Climbing was greatly slowing Judith's going, because she hand to either jump from the rock to rock in the same level and even climb to the top of every rock to get up was hard because of her small size.

She had to also to be careful while climbing up, because there was surely more than just one deceptive stone among the many others, which could either to drop her to her certain death or even cause the rock slide, which could easily swallow her and take her down with the rocks.

"Just like my cousin once said, "bunnies are not made for climbing the trees like squirrels."" Judy said remembering one of her causing who hated three things most in her life… trees, climbing and the high places.

"And bah! When I have a basket to retrieve, for my behalf, the rabbits are made for even flying like the birds in the air." Judith said with a declaring tone and continued climbing.

But when Judith jumped on the rock, she found out too late that she had just jumped to the rock what she had told herself to watch while climbing up, the loose rock, and because it was her only foothold right now and because she managed to grab with her only free paw from the another loose rock, she was falling down and even roughly rolling down the steep slope.

Luckily to her, Judith was about to fall the next of the tree branch and acting quickly, Judith swung her spear from another side of the branch over it and quickly grabbed from the spear with both of her paws and hoped that she did not take the spear which was already rotten by the time.

Once again luckily to her, the spear was able to hold her weight and Judith sighed deeply in relief.

Judith remained hanging on the branch from her spear for the five minutes, until she carefully climbed on the branch.

Judith quickly checked the situation. Down to the ground in the feet of the solid rock was still a long and rough way to fall, but she noticed that she had fell down more than half from her climbing trip to up.

Judith sighed deeply out of frustration after finding that out.

"Now it really would be more than just useful to have a wings." Judith sighed and started to climb up again, only this time, more carefully.

Judith finally reached to the top of the cliff after so hard climb that she had to stop to catch some breath before she had to move on.

Judith collapsed on her kneels panting and dropped her spear to the ground. Climbing had took to her strength, but she had made it up. Judith started to think did she had any strength to fight the fox is it was still around.

However, Judith didn't care. Her father has always said that the good hunter never shows his or her exhaustion and this she intend to do.

After taking some break, Judith get up on her feet and grabbed the spear in her paws. The spear ready to combat, Judith checked the area, but there was still nothing.

And she didn't heard anything with her big sense of hearing… for now.

But the scent of fox was still strong, telling to Judith that it was still around.

There was also another scent in the air, which smelled like…

"Salmons!" Judy said after sniffing carefully the air.

Checking the area one more time, Judy's eyes soon caught the flock of birds, hawks. swirling in the air upon something, what the others were like eating something on the ground.

Judith quickly rushed to it, driving the hawks away to see what they were doing.

There was it, the missing basket from the village.

The basket was tore apart and all the salmons were either completely or half eaten by the hawks. Only few of them had left untouched, but most of then had get dirty by lying and probably being even rolled on the ground and some of them had hawks droppings, making them useless to anything.

The sight was like doings of the salmon-loving grizzly bear.

Judith knelt down next to the destroyed basked and picked one wooden piece of its remains on her paw.

Judith then let out the loud snort out of frustration.

"So much hard work to get those salmons FOR NOTHING! Just because of one thieving fox!" Judith yelled angrily as she threw the piece of basket away and out of frustration and anger of losing the big fish catch Judith kicked half of the basket's remains and one dirty salmon aside.

Judith was then intend to walk away, to go back to the village to tell about the fate of the stolen basket, until her ears caught the tiny sound of sniffing and growling from behind of her.

Judith quickly knelt down, took her spear into the defensive position and slowly turned around to see the source of the sounds she just heard.

Once again, there was anybody in seen in the area… until Judith's eyes caught something big, something red, moving quickly among the conifers a small distance away from her.

There it was… a fox, and quite a large-sized individual compared to the other of its own species. Almost as big as an adult timber wolf.

The fox was walking away from Judith, probably not yet seeing her, and sniffed the air while walking towards the trees.

Judith approached the fox quietly and slowly, under the wind so the fox cannot catch her scent and run away, again.

A little voice in Judith's head guided her to let it go, leave the fox alone and go back to the village to tell the others about the basket's fate.

But, however, Judith's impatience created and feed by her already grown frustration about her totem she just received, Jill's annoying teasing after her ceremony and the long and hard climbing after that damned creature took her over and she picked the stick from the ground.

"Hey, you!" Judith shouted as she threw the stick towards the fox.

The stick landed right next to the fox, catching its attention.

Then the fox turned around to see from where the stick had come from and then it saw Judith a small distance away from it.

Judith then picked the rock from the ground.

"I'm gonna teach you not to steal the others stuff!" Judith shouted at the fox and threw the rock towards the fox.

However, the fox dodged quickly the rock flying towards of it, which just added Judith's frustration even more and she picked another rock in her paw.

"Take that you ugly stinking fish-thief!" Judith shouted and threw the rock towards the fox before it could prepare to dodge another one.

The rock got the fox off guard and hit between of the fox's eyes. The fox let out the loud yelp in pain until it bared its teeth and snarled loudly at Judith.

Meanwhile...

Jill and Stu were walking together in Judith's trail the spears in their paws, several cliffs lower from the cliff Judith was right now.

They had reached here after finding Judith's footprints and in the woods a bit far away from the feet of the solid rock and followed them there. After they had arrived there to the feet of the solid rock and losing Judith's footprints, they had caught Judith's scent which was leading up to the rocks. Following the scent, they had together climbed up the rocks until they had reached to the trail, from which they continued by walking and started to call Judith when her scent grown stronger.

"Judith…? Judith…? Judith, where are you?!" Stu shouted as loud as bunny could.

Stu called out Judith several times, hoping that his little girl did not get too far gone and even out of his calls range.

However, there was no an answer to be heard from Judith.

"Where did she go?" Stu asked from himself, with the worried tone.

"Well, if we're lucky, she has already got far away." Jill said with sarcastic tone.

Jill let then out a snort out of frustration.

"Why she just couldn't stay in the village and just submit to make a new basket, that we do not need to search the whole area looking for her? She was the one who left it behind untied and easier meal for the fox she's surely looking for instead of the stolen basket. After we find her, I totally blame her for all of this." Jill said with the frustrated tone.

"Knock it off, Jill. In fact, wasn't it originally you who provoked her to go after the stolen salmons and the fox in the first place?" Stu scolded his daughter.

Jill let out another snort out of frustration.

"Yeah, unite all of you, you, Judith, maybe even mom and all 276 brothers and sisters as one against me. You're all blaming only me for her own mistakes." Jill said defending herself.

Now it was Stu's turn sight out of frustration to her daughter's stubbornness and refusal to be one to blamed for all of this, which was actually even true. She was the one who made funny of Judith after she had got from their mother her totem and even provoked her more when the salmon basket was missing. However, Jill stubbornly refused to admit this.

"Now Jill, I'm warning you very last time. You either knock it off, or I'll put you…"

"AAAA'AAAARGH! UGH!" Heard from somewhere nearby, which cut Stu off from his words before he could even finish what he was even saying.

Both Stu and Jill turned to the direction of the sound, which was far above of them and they saw Judith, falling the couple cliffs down from the top of the rock until she roughly landed to the narrow cliff above of the long way to fall.

"Judith?!" Stu and Jill shouted in one voice, until both of them quickly rushed up to the rocks to get to top of the cliff and save Judith.

Meanwhile, Judith rubbed her head and neck, having hit them roughly to something. After she had cleared her mind, she noticed the long way to fall down to the rocky lakeside next of the cliffs. Judith quickly stood up on her feet, pressing her back against the wall.

Judith quickly watched both of her sides trying to find with her eyes something to grab and then climb back up to the cliff. Luck wasn't on her side this time, because there was nothing she could have reach, grab and climb back to top to the cliff.

"Judith!" Judith heard the familiar voice calling her from above of her.

Judith looked up and saw her father, above of her and trying to reach her by extending his paw, in which he was holding his spear so that Judith could grab on it so he could pull her up to safety.

The smile of relief visited briefly on Judith's lips, until her eyes widened in horror.

"Father, no, you gotta get out of here, now!" Judith yelled with worried and almost panicking tone, much to her father's confusion.

"What? What are you talking about?" Stu said with confused tone and expression.

"FOX! FATHER, LOOK OUT! FOX, RIGHT BEHIND YOU!" Judy yelled pointing with her finger over Stu's shoulder.

Stu turned around to see what Judy pointed with her finger, until something grabbed roughly from his right arm near of his shoulder, shredding his coat's sleeve in the shreds and digging the claws in Stu's arm, making him yell from pain, and then his attacker tossed him on his back to the ground.

Stu gritted teeth from pain in his arm as the blood flowed in drops from the holes of his shredded sleeve torn by his attackers claws.

Stu slowly opened his eyes to see who or what had just attacked him… and the rabbit chieftain gasped in horror after realizing that it was unprecedentedly big fox snarling and barking at him angrily and staring at him with its killing instincts filled green eyes.

Stu tried to grab his spear to defend himself, but the fox swung its claws at him and tossed the spear off from his paws to aside, leaving Stu to completely defenseless and in the mercy of the angry fox.

Because he was near the edge of the cliff, his spear was tossed aside and another one he had took with him for Judy was under of his pack and there was nowhere to escape, Stu was unable to do anything to defend himself as a fox pinned him roughly down with its leg from his chest, pressing him with all of its weight and showing at him its bare white fangs.

The fox even grabbed Stu from his throat with its left arm and started to squeeze its clawed fingers in a fist around of Stu's throat, digging at the same time its claws in Stu's throat, trying to choke him.

As the fox was about to strike Stu's faces with its claws, the fox got hit to its head from the fist-sized rock, making the predator yelp in pain, until it angrily turned around to see, who had throw the rock at it.

It was Jill, who was throwing the rocks towards the fox to get its attention from killing his father and little sister to focus on her.

"HEY YOU! YOU BIG SMELLING FLEA-COAT, COME ON! OVER HERE! COME ON, BIG BULLY, COME THIS WAY!" Jill yelled, staring the HUGE fox with both disgusted and antagonized look.

The fox snarled angrily at Jill, fell on its all fours and barked loudly and hungrily at Jill as it lunged savagely towards Jill.

Jill quickly took her spear in the self-defending position and quickly packed off keeping with her spear the fox away from her.

Jill also used her bunny instincts and the rabbit's bouncing speed through the rocks, fallen logs and open rocky field trying to evade with every prudent and quick dodge the predator's claws when the fox quickly and savagely tried to slash her with its claws, and a couple times snap its jaws and sharp teeth around of Jill's neck. The fox missed every slash, even though couple of its attacks tore Jill's coat to shreds and it almost snapped its jaws near the top of her left ear, much to her shock.

As the fox was chasing and battling Jill, this gave lots of time to Stu to focus to rescuing Judith from the lower cliff. He quickly retrieved his spear and extended it again to Judith.

And he had to save his daughter quickly, because the fox was chasing Jill to the glacier and there was its own dangers.

"Come on, Judith! Climb!" Stu called as Judith grabbed from Stu's spear.

Stu quickly pulled Judith up to the cliff and grabbed his daughter in his arms after she was safely at the top of the cliff.

"Are you okay?" Stu asked with the worried tone, until Judy quickly pulled herself out from her father's arms.

"Exception of hitting my head to something, I'm fine." Judith said rubbing her head.

"C'mon, father! We gotta help Jill!" Judith added, letting temporarily go her current annoyed feelings towards her annoying big sister.

Stu nodded and quickly handed over the spear on his back to Judith and both of them rushed after Jill and the fox to the glacier.

Meanwhile, at the glacier, the fox was about to have upper hand of Jill in the combat. The slipping ice of the glacier slowed Jill's going but it did no seemed to bother the fox thanks for its claws, much to Jill's shock. This was besides Jill's first time when she was fighting her species natural enemy and her lack of fighting skills were the reason why she was easily overpowered by the predator

"NO! NO! NONONONONO! NO! WAIT A MINUTE! GIVE ME TIME! TIME! TIME!" Jill pleaded almost in panic, but the fox ignored them and doubled its attacks, slashing its claws towards her faster and snapping its jaws close of her wrists and throat.

Then, the fox tossed Jill roughly aside, but as she landed, the ice break under of her weight.

It was one of the cracks in the glacier. They were always hidden by snow and deceptively fragile ice of the glacier, which is why they were never seen and it was dangerously and fatally easy to fall off on one of them.

Luckily for Jill, her spear got caught in the edges of the hole, preventing her to fall to the blue-black and frigid darkness in the bottom of the hole and she remained to hang on her spear.

However, much to her shock, her spear started to bend downwards, meaning that it would not hold her weight quite long, which means that it either slipped from one of the edges of the hole or snaps in half. And because her spear, especially its middle, was full of deep claw marks from the fight against the fox, it would certainly snap in half and let her fall to the bottom of the hole with no way to escape.

"JILL!" Judith shouted as she rushed towards the crack to save her sister.

Jill let out the brief smile after hearing Judith coming for her, but it quickly turned in horror as the spear finally snapped in half and let her to fall down.

Luckily, Judith managed nick in time to grab with both of her paws from Jill's right paw's wrist before she could to disappear in the darkness far below in the hole.

"Hold on, Jill! I got you!" Judith shouted and started with all her strength to pull her big sister up from the hole.

"Quick, Judith! Pull me up!" Jill shouted in half panic as she tried to find a foothold for her legs, which would help her to climb up from the hole.

However, the ice was quite fragile inside of the hole, making the climbing more difficult for Jill, even though Judith was all of time pulling her up.

"All of time! All of time! Why you gotta be so heavy?!" Judith asked sarcastically, even though they were in the serious situation, ass she still tried to pull Jill up from the hole.

Meanwhile, Stu was bravely and fiercely fighting against the fox. When the fox had tossed Jill aside to the danger of death, Stu had attacked the fox to force the predator far away from the hole to buy Judith enough time to save her sister. With all his skills from his previous fights against the foxes, even though none of them had been so big as this one, Stu swung his spear's sharp-topped rock head towards the fox trying to keep it away from him and ducking time after time the fox's attacks when it tried to slash Stu with its claws or snap its jaws towards him. Stu even hit the fox in the head with his spear, which antagonized the fox even more and more, making it to double its attacks. Stu was forced even back off when the fox savagely lunged at him with its claws.

Even though the fox's unusual large size offered him a challenge, the speed and the learning and experiences from the last encounters were still in Stu's side. But the brute force, and the foxes well-known cunning mind was in the fox side, even though the fox seemed to use only the brute force against him.

Jill had finally found a foothold to push herself up from the hole as Judith continued pulling her up from the hole.

"There you go!" Judith said as Jill was almost out from the crack.

However, as Jill raised her left leg in order to get it on the edge to ease her climbing up and was about to push with her right leg from the foothold, it unexpectedly broke loose from the wall inside of the hole and Jill fell back to the crack, even though she tried to dug her claws to the ice to prevent herself falling back to the hole but in vain.

Judith reacted quickly and grabbed both of Jill's wrists with her paws, but Jill's unexpected falling back in the hole almost grabbed her with her sister to the hole, forcing Judith to let go one of Jill's wrist and grab from something to prevent both of them to fall in the hole.

She barely managed to grab from the piece of ice in the edge of the hole, digging her claws to it and pulled herself carefully up, still holding with her another paw from Jill's wrist.

Meanwhile, Jill and Judith's screams when they both almost fell to the hole caught Stu's attention from the fight with the fox to his girls to see the reason of the scream. He saw to his horror that Judith had almost fell with her sister to the hole as Judith was carefully crawling up from the hole.

Bad mistake from Stu.

The fox then attacked surprisingly from behind of him. Stu tried to still fight back but the fox had got him off the guard and hit the spear out of his paws.

Then the fox slashed Stu's side with its claws, making Stu cry out of pain as he fell to the ground. The fox them pinned Stu to the ground and started to maul him savagely.

Judith, after she had climbed up from the hole and turned around to help Jill up, heard her father's yells out of pain and quickly looked over her shoulder… to witness her father being mauled by the fox, much to her horror.

"FATHER! NO!" Judith cried in horror seeing the situation of her father.

However, much to her agony, there was nothing she could do for her father right now, so she focused back to help Jill up from the hole.

After the fox was done with Stu, it left him behind to lie wounded in the ice and started to approach Judith and Jill with the savage look in its eyes and barking and growling at them loudly.

However, Stu was still alive but badly wounded and even unable to get up on his feet. The backsides of his coat and pants were torn open and one of his legs had been badly shredded, his back plus his left side were full of bloody and bleeding claw marks plus bites and the bad claw marks run across of the right side of his faces, nearly hitting his right eye. Even one of his ears was torn to shreds by the fox's teeth, but there was not fatal damage on his neck or throat.

Stu grabbed to his spear, heavily panting out of pain, even though he knew that the weapon was now useless because there was nothing he was able to do anymore to fight the fox and defend his children, who were desperately trying to pull themselves up from the hole as they noticed the fox coming right towards them.

"It's coming! C'mon! Hurry up, Jill! Pull yourself up!" Judith shouted in half panic as she continued desperately pulling Jill up.

"All of time, Judith! All of time!" Jill shouted back, trying to find another foothold to push herself up from the hole.

Stu wasn't at the same time yet ready to give up in order to save his daughters from the beast, as he looked around for something, anything that he could use as his advantage to defend his daughters from the fox.

Suddenly, he spotted the crack in the ice next of him, which continued far from the edge of the glacier, delimiting the whole area of the glacier's edge. Judith and Jill were on the another side of the crack while he and the fox were on the side of the edge.

If the ice was fragile enough, with the hardly moving the area of the crack, he could make the whole edge to collapse and take the fox with it.

But it has also the price to pay off, but there was no another choice to save his daughters.

It was now or never.

Selflessly accepting the consequences of his most likely suicidal move with the risk of his own life, grinding his teeth out of pain from his badly mauled back and leg, Stu slowly crawled on his kneel and lifting with both of his paws his spear over his head.

"NOT MY DAUGHTERS!" Stu let out the loud cry to the air and with all his strength he had left, the rabbit chieftain struck/sank his spear into the ice crack, pressing it into as deep as he could.

Then Stu roughly moved his spear in the crack, causing the ice, as expected, to crack around of the fox before it could reach to another side of the edge's area.

Meanwhile, Jill had found another foothold from the wall inside of the hole and with Judith pulling one last time with all her strength she pushed herself up, finally able to get her leg to the edge of the hole and get out of the hole by herself.

But when Jill was safe, both girl's attentions turned to the glacier's cliff and to their horror, they saw that it was cracking around the area of the cliff and about to collapse. And their father was still on his kneel at the edge of the glacier.

"Father? FATHER, GET OUT OF THERE!" Judith cried in deep worry.

Stu was heavily panting in pain while leaning on his spear.

Hearing Judith's cry, Stu lifted his head up to the direction of his daughters, and was momentarily relieved that Judith had managed to get Jill to safety out from the crack.

However, when the glacier's ice cliff was cracking even more and more under of him until to the point when it was eventually about to collapse, the rabbit chieftain gave his final nod to his daughters and grabbed tightly from his spear, accepting coming consequences.

When the life-threateningly cracking and for its final moments struggling ice cliff eventually gave up and went loose from the rest of the glacier, the entire cliff was starting to collapse into the massive pieces and fall downwards, and take wounded Stu and the fox down with it.

However, unlike for his daughters lives himself sacrificing Stu, the fox, after seeing the ice cliff life-threateningly cracking beneath of its feet and was about to go down, wasn't about to stay put and whimpering the beast started to run through the collapsing part of the cliff to get another side of the cliff.

However, the collapsing pieces and the slippery ice itself slowed the beast down greatly, but the fox wasn't going to give up fo trying to escape.

Then the fox made its final desperate attempt to reach to another side by jumping, but it landed to the edge of the still standing cliff and even though the fox tried to crawl itself up to the edge with the claws, the slippery ice prevent it to have a decent grip on anything and the beast fell from the cliff with Stu.

There was heard the fox loud whimper in despair as the whole cliff in the gigantic pieces of ice collapsed loudly tumbling down to the lake in the feet of the glacier.

GIGANTIC SPLASH!

The gigantic pieces of ice caused the mega splash when they landed to the lake, which huge waves wiped over the lakeside, cutting down some of old trees and carrying some smaller pieces of ice to the lakeside.

The tumbling was over soon and everything was awkwardly silent.

As the cliff had stopped of collapsing down, Judith and Jill rushed to the edge to see where their father fell.

"Father?" Judy whispered in agony and desperately hoping that their father was okay.

Only one living thing what they saw at first was the fox, who had barely survived from the rough fall to the lake. The beast whimpered as it slowly swum to the lakeside, and once it had reached to the lakeside and pulled itself to the dry land, the beast started to shook its fur dry.

Then the fox took the one last look up to edge of the glacier from where it had fell down, after which the beast let out the final loud barking before rushing away in the woods

But there was no sight of their father.

They still looked down to find anything still moving in the water. When they saw nothing, they feared the worst.

"Come on!" Judith said as she rushed to find the part of the glacier through which they could climb down to look for their father.

Without hesitation and in a deep worry, Jill followed her immediately.

It took a lot of time from the sisters to climb down from the top of the glacier, even through they had chosen the faster and more easier way to climb down from the icy cliff of the glacier to the base of the glacier.

But once they finally reached to there, both of them quickly rushed to the water in the panic-like concern.

"FATHER!" Judith called out.

"FATHER! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Jill shouted rushing right behind of Judith.

First thing what they found was part of their father's spears floating on the water near of the lakeside. Judith quickly rushed to it and picked the spear out of the water.

"We have to slip up! Jill, go to look deeper and watch out for the falling pieces of ice, I check the lakeside!" Judith said with paniciking voice.

"Got it!" Jill said and rushed quickly to deeper while Judith stayed near the lakeside.

"FATHER! FATHER, WHERE ARE YOU?!" Judith called out, hoping that her father had somewhere on the lakeside crawled out of the water and looked some shelter for himself 'til the fox had gone away. However, there was no any sight of him in the lakeside nor in the woods, there was not even a answer to Judith's calls.

"FATHER!" Jill shouted as she went deeper to look for Stu. She checked behind of every fell piece of ice hoping her father to be behind of some of them.

She didn't find any sight of Stu, until her eyes caught something in the water.

"JUDITH! COME QUICK!" Jill called her sister, who immediately rushed to the side of her sister to see what she had found.

"Over there!" Jill said pointing with her finger to the direction of the thing she saw.

There was something floating in the water at some distance from them among the small pieces of ice, which looked like the dead bird floating in the water.

Before Jill could say anything else, Judith rushed to retrieve it.

When Judith reached to it, she found out much to her horror that what it was.

It was a hood from their father's coat, to which Stu had attached couple of hunted deers antlers. It was somehow separated from Stu's coat during of this horrible accident.

Judith quickly picked it from the water and looked at it with the deep worry for her father and fear of the worst.

"Father…" She whispered in deep agony, and because the hood was floating nearby the small pile of collapsed pieces of ice in the feet of the glacier…

"No…" Judith let out the silent whisperer as her eyes widened out of fear of the worst as she watched the pile.

However, Judith tossed the hood away and rushed to the pile calling her father's name in agony.

Jill followed right behind her, but instead of going towards the pile of ice she rushed to the hood Judith tossed aside and picked it up from the water.

Agony expression slowly came to Jill's face as she finally realized that the worse had happened.

Knowing that there was nothing they can do anymore, or even make it undone, Jill slowly squeezed the hood in her paws, lowered her head down and closed her eyes filled with tears in deep sorrow.

Jill had already lost her hope. The same could not be said about Judith.

Judith reached to the pile of the ice and started to roll the pieces of ice off the pile to the water in order to dig her father out. She suddenly paused for a minute turned to Jill.

"JILL, DON'T YOU JUST STAND THERE! FIND HIM!" Judith shouted and continued rolling the pieces of ice away.

"FATHER! FATHER! FATHER, WHERE ARE YOU! FATHER, PLEASE! ANSWER ME! FATHER!" Judy yelled as she continued digging the pile of ice. Not willing to give up just yet.

 **Gotta end this chapter here.**

 **I hope that you liked this chapter with the battle between of "natural enemies" instead of the battle between "the man and nature wildlife.**


	4. Chapter 4: Funeral

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 4: FUNERAL.**

 **ENJOY THE READING**

It was a dark night of grief and sorrow.

As the news about the tragic death of the chieftain of the Bunnyburrow tribe spread through the entire village, every bunny gathered to the lair for the funeral.

The hundreds of flares have been ignited tonight.

The funeral bonfire had been made-up in the cave.

And every bunny of the tribe had arrived in the cave, standing the heads and ears lowered down and eyes closed in sorrow.

Judith and Jill walked towards their waiting mother through of the bunnies, carrying on their paws all of it what they had found from Stu's place of death.

His broken spear…

His coat's hood…

His right paw, which came at first as horrific sight and new to the villagers, causing them to believe that the fox had ate Stu and left only his paw left, until they were explained that Judith and Jill had after a long search eventually found Stu's body, being fatally crushed under the huge and heavy boulder of ice, which had cut off Stu's paw between of it and another ice boulder.

Judith and Jill had found the paw while they were rolling the ice boulders away one by one as a desperate attempt to dig their father out of under the ice boulders.

And finally, Stu's totem, the eagle of guidance.

Bonnie had told Judith and Jill that the totem was important part of the funerals. It was not only the gift from the Great Spirits but also a part of their carrier's soul and the dead ones needed it on their final journey from the mortal world to among of the other Great Spirits.

With the heavy heart and in the deep sorrow of losing her husband, Bonnie gently wrapped Stu's remains inside the scroll made by fur and placed Stu's totem top of the scroll, spread something liquid upon them and blessed Stu's remains, before she took them and placed them inside the funeral bonfire.

As the deep silent took over the cave, Bonnie ignited the bonfire around of Stu's remains in fire and the whole Hopps family and all other rabbits, especially the ones who were Stu's the closest friends from his childhood and through of him the friends of his family, gathered around of the bonfire, mourning Judith and Jill at the head of the family.

The fire spread quickly around of the whole bonfire, consuming Stu's remains inside of it.

During of all of this, almost all rabbits, except Bonnie, Judith and Jill, song their the traditional funeral song in their native language, as _Northern Lights_ appeared in the sky above of the cavern, in the colors of purple, pink and blue, the colors of sorrow.

Bonnie then spread her paws, pulling them backwards. And then, she waved her paws high to the sky.

And as she did so, the bonfire flashed and launched the high flames, yellow sparks and the burnt remnants of Stu's remains up to the sky among the _Northern Lights_.

Stu was now officially among the other Great Spirits.

Jill and Judith had all of time watched their father's remains burning inside of the funeral bonfire in a deep sorrow in their hearts, until the flash had sent them to the _Northern Lights_ and among the other Spirits.

As Judith watched her father's burnt remains flying to the sky, her sorrowful and deeply mourning expression on her face eventually darkened and turned into a expression of pure anger and she, without saying the word, left from the cave.

Jill, however, remained next to the bonfire, head lowered down and the eyes closed. She was a deeply ashamed, knowing that she also had her own part in Stu's death by provoking Judith to go after the fox and the stolen basket in the first place.

After a some time.

Jill stood in place, even when everyone else had gone to their homes to sleep when the funeral was officially over.

And even when a funeral bonfire had already burned itself to the end, leaving a pile of burnt and smoking wood behind., she was still standing next of the remains of the funeral bonfire, too much under of her sorrow and her own feeling of guilt to leave.

Bonnie landed comfortingly her paw on Jill's shoulder, to which Jill briefly grabbed with her left paw without opening her eyes and turning her head to her mother, before her mother departed leaving Jill standing next of the remains of the bonfire.

Jill was left to her own peace and silence.

Then, Judith suddenly arrived to her, two leather bags filled with food and two spears with her.

"Are you ready?" Judith asked with the calm voice.

Jill opened her eyes after hearing what Judy did just said and turned around to look at her sister in confusion.

"Ready? Ready for what?" Jill demanded to know why she had to be ready.

Judith snorted in frustration but kept herself calm.

"Well, for what you think? For the fox hunt, of course. I'm going after that fox. You wanna come with me?" Judith said and threw the bag and spear to Jill.

Jill grabbed the bag and the spear from the air and looked at them for a while.

She then realized what Judith was going to. She had left earlier from the funeral ceremony to their warren to gather some food and spears and go then to the wild to hunt down the fox they battled.

She had come back to the cave to ask her to join to the fox hunting.

"Together, we will hunt down that beast and destroy it, for father's memory." Judith added.

However, Jill lowered her head and closed her eyes again, knowing too well that even though they would be able to hunt down and kill the fox, it would not set a things right like they were before all of this.

Besides, what's the point in the fox hunting anyway.

Jill sighed deeply and then turned to Judith, with a worried, yet still mourning and ashamed look on her face.

"Judith, I know what you're feeling, but... this doesn't set a things right. Besides, killing that fox is wrong." Jill said and threw both the spear and the bag away and turned back to the next of the remains of the funeral bonfire.

Judith's eyes widened in shock and anger after what she just heard coming out from her sister's mouth.

"Wrong? What do you mean with "wrong?!" Don't you get it, Jill?! Our father is dead and it's all because of that savage monster!" Judith said with the anger.

"You do not even know what you're talking about!" Judith added.

After hearing Judith openly blaming the fox for their father's death and yet saying that she has no idea what she's talking about, Jill turned around to look at Judith's eyes, with the serious and scolding look in hers.

"YES I DO, BECAUSE I DON'T BLAME THE FOX, JUDITH!" Jill said with the scolding tone to Judith.

"I may have provoked you to go after that fox, but now you answer to these questions: Who did untie that basked so carelessly, making it an easy target for that fox in the first place? Who did go after that fox in the first place, and **WHO** provoked that fox to attack us in the first place?" Jill asked with the scolding tone from Judith.

Jill's words hit deeply in Judith, making her speechless.

Judith looked at her big sister in the deep silent of anger and shock after hearing her words. before she turned away from her little sister.

Her own big sister, first time in her entire life, finally admitted her mistake… but instead of that fox, she openly blamed **HER** for their father's death.

However, Judith stubbornly denied this in her mind and Jill's words just provoked her even more to the dark path.

"Oh, I see. You're siding with that fox against me, aren't you?" Judith asked with the dark tone.

Jill snorted in frustration and anger, until she turned once again to her little sister to talk some sense in her thick skull.

"Hey, listen! I'm not siding with anyone against you, least with the foxes. I'm just trying to speak you out of this madness." Jill said frustrated.

"You call this a madness?! I call this rather revenge." Judith said in growing anger.

"Revenge? Do you really think that revenge will make you feel better?! Besides, Our father wouldn't want it!" Jill shouted angrily at her stubborn little sister.

"What do you know about what makes me feel more better?!" Judith shouted back.

"Besides, our father's not here anymore, because of that monster." Judith said and was trying to turn away to leave to the fox hunt.

However, Jill grabbed from her shoulder, turning her around and tried to grab to her spear in order to take it away from her paws.

"Judith! Killing that fox is pointless and it won't make you a full-grown woman." Jill said harshly.

Judith angrily shook her big sister's paw off from her shoulder and rudely pushed Jill away from her, grabbing her spear back from Jill's paws.

"Oh, are you now trying to be wise, huh?" Judith said angrily back.

"Because the wisdom is my totem and I'm trying to follow it! Why can't you do the same thing with yours?" Jill said, almost desperately and frustrated, when Judith repeatedly rejected all what she had said to her.

Judith's eyes widened angrily.

"Are you saying that I'm supposed to call myself off from this and let that damn monster live after what it did to us? Besides, You really think the friendship with our natural enemy has anything to do with being a mature woman?"

"Well, YOU answer now to this question: When came the day when the spoiled brat-like acting Jill Hopps, the biggest nuisance ever and dumbest member of our tribe, finally started to admit her own mistakes rather than trying to avoid the blame and consequences because of her cowardice?" Judith asked angrily, reminding to shocked Jill about many of those times when she had mischievously teased the other rabbits, especially Judith, and was never willing to admit her own mistakes to avoid consequences.

"NEVER, until this night. And now it's too late for you to regret YOUR today's mistake and you know exactly that why."

"And speaking of being a mature woman. A matured woman wouldn't just sit here and do nothing! This means that I'm going, and you cannot stop me." Judith said with the declaring voice and turned around.

But before she managed to leave the cave, Jill once again grabbed from her shoulder and turned her around ... in order to try yet one last time to speak her stubborn little sister out of this madness.

"Judith! Your totem was the gift from the Spirits. Even though I do not know, or in fact nobody does, what will happen if the one granted with one stands against his or hers own gift from the Spirits like this, but it cannot be anything good. So take my advice even for once and don't upset the Spirits." Jill said trying to talk sense to her stubborn sister.

However, Judith snorted with disbelief and disgust and shook her sister's paw off from her shoulder.

"Humph! Spirits. Let us say that they're also one to be blamed for all of this because of their the gift of "the friendship with the fox". Thanks for your wisdom." Judith said sarcastically and turned to leave.

But before she could, she noticed that Bonnie had appeared before her during of her and Jill's argument. Bonnie took the desperately begging expression on her face as she looked at her daughter's eyes, pleading her to listen her family and to not go after the fox.

However, Judith had come too far that she could anymore turn back from the path she had chosen and ignoring her mother's eye contact, Judith took her totem from under of her shirt and looked at it with the disrespect, pure hate and deep disgust.

Then, she rudely took it off from her neck and threw it to the remains of the funeral bonfire before departing, not even looking back to her family or waiting for her mother's blessings as she had always done before leaving for the wild to hunt.

With the sad expression on her face, Bonnie watched after her daughter as he disappeared to the woods.

Then, Bonnie moved to the remains of the funeral bonfire and picked Judith's totem from the ashes, wiping all remained ashes from it with her paw.

Then Bonnie turned her eyes on Jill, who also was watching after her little sister before she disappeared into the dark of the night.

From Bonnie's eyes, Jill read her mother's thoughts and deep worry about Judith. Bonnie was of course as their tribe's shaman one of the few ones who can be near and even talk to the spirits, but even her mother had no idea what will happen if Judith continues on the dark path she had chosen in anger and as victim of her own vengeful obsession. But abandoning the gift from the spirits and antagonizing them like that is never an good idea and the consequences may be even worse, although no one knows how worse.

So, Bonnie asked Jill to go after Judith to make sure she doesn't get herself killed and even try to stop her in her pointless mission.

Jill nodded humbly.

"As you wish, mom. I was in fact going after her without asking. I gotta stop her."

Bonnie gave Jill her blessing and Judith's totem, which Jill took quickly in her paws. Then she crabbed her spear and food bag and rushed after Judith.

From the edge of the cave, Bonnie watched with the expression of deep sorrow Jill's going through and then out from the village in the woods and she disappeared in the darkness of night.

The whole situation and both of her girls departing had made Bonnie to ask from herself that is she going to see her little girls ever again.

Bonnie then turned her sad eyes to a starry sky of the night and the _Northern Lights_ still in the colors of sorrow, hoping inside of her heart her beloved now deceased husband to hear her prays.

"Oh, Stu. Our family is broken without your guidance. There's the great rift between of your girls… and even between the spirits and your youngest daughter. Judith has abandoned her gift from the spirits and she is in warfare with the foxes, who're supposed to be her friends rather than enemies as the spirits has decided. Even I do not know what may happen if stand against the decision and will of the spirits like that, but I'm concerned that it can't be anything good for my little girl, Stu. So please and hear my prays. Please, ask the other spirits that they do not punish my little girl so harshly for her own foolishness." Bonnie said with the desperating and sad voice.

Bonnie then closed her eyes and let the cold night wind to blow gently on her faces.

There was also some whispers in the wind, which drifted with the wind from the _Northern Lights_ to Bonnie.

She stood in place for a long time listening what kind of whisperers the wind carried on her ears as the winds unnaturally circled around of her body and mostly her ears.

Bonnie did nothing during of this, only stood quietly in place, mentally and patiently listening what the wind wanted to say and mentally she slowly nodded after every blow of the winds.

After for while, the wind faded from around her.

Bonnie still stood quietly in place her eyes closed, thinking about everything what the winds had whispered her.

As she finally opened her eyes, she was quite unsure about what the spirits were planned for her daughter if she continues on her path of hate and vengeance. The spirit's will was her a law and she loyalty followed it, but even this doesn't prevent her from questioning the will of the wind. She was still worried her little daughter's well-being afterwards of her foolish mission.

"I don't know about this, Stu. It might be a difficult for my little girl by the way she doesn't understand, and maybe even dangerous yet. Is that all the Spirits are able to grant to you?" Bonnie asked, as a new blow of the night wind blew against Bonnie's face, starting to circle around of her again and whisper something to her ears.

Bonnie closed her eyes again and mentally listened the whispers of the wind, before they faded away once again… and were this time completely gone.

"I can only hope you know what you're doing, Stu." Bonnie said and left from the cave, and while she did, the _Northern Lights_ departed too, to the direction to which Judith and Jill went.

 **Gotta end this chapter here.**

 **I hope that you enjoyed of my FOX OF FRIENDSHIP version of the Brother Bear film's secondly saddest moment and the argument between of two brothers but in my story's case... between the two sisters.**


	5. Chapter 5: The Fox Hunt

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 5: THE FOX HUNT  
**

 **ENJOY THE READING**

On the next day morning.

Judith arrived back to the glacier where their battle with that fox and Stu's death were taken the place.

Judith rushed to that part of the lakeside where the fox had risen to the beach and ran to the woods.

Judith knelt down next to the fox trails and took a little mud from middle of the fox footprint and lifted the mud under of her nose, closed her eyes and sniffed the mud to get the fox scent, which would help her to track such of beast down in the wild.

After Judith did so, she threw the mud away from her paw with the disgust, opened her eyes and turned her dark look to the direction, to north-west. where the fox went yesterday.

"I'm gonna make you regret that you were ever born." Judith growled with the dark tone before she left from the lake and rushed after the fox trails.

Judith spent hours following the fox's trail…

…through of the woods…

…rocky area of the waterfalls…

…the open hilly fields…

…And once again through the woods.

Judith even paid a brief stop in the camp of the moose tribe to ask from them have they seen any sight of the large fox and to which direction it went after Judith lost the trail briefly.

However, Judith did not spend much time with the moose because the moose were 90% comical, a childish and joke-loving mammals and 10% serious and matured by nature, with the exception if they're under the threat such like being hunted.

Right now Judy wasn't in the mood of jokes. The moose jokes only annoyed her more, especially when one of them made the joke related to Judith's mission of hunting down the fox.

"A rabbit hunting down the fox? Well, does the mice hunts down the cats, their natural enemy? Yes they could, only if the mice were just a bigger than cats."

The moose laughed heartily at this.

"Very bad joke." Judith muttered in annoyance and left from the camp to continue the fox hunt.

The next couple hours Judith spent trying to catch the scent of the fox in the forest in which she had just arrived.

Then she spotted something, something red in the nearby tree's roots.

Judith rushed quickly to the next of the tree and knelt down to pick it from the root into her paw to see what it was.

It was the fur, red fox's fur.

The smile visited briefly on Judith's lips after realizing that she was on the right tracks. The fox she was looking for has had to walk right through of this some time ago, maybe in the late of the last night or just this morning, meaning that so the fox should not be too far away.

Even though Judith hated to do this, she lifted the fur closer of her nose and sniffed it for a couple times to catch the scent again.

Afterwards, she raised her head and sniffed the air to catch the fox scent to know that where it did to go.

And then, she caught the scent.

Judy quickly jumped up on her feet and started to run towards the direction from where the scent was coming.

The fox was still heading towards the north-west.

The forest was soon left behind of her after Judy ran out from the forest and noticed that she was heading/running towards the steep hillock covered by small bushes on top fo it and trees from its feet straight ahead of her. It was so high that a swampy river basins were seen from a distance on the top of the hillock.

The fall down was even high, but Judith did not care.

Picking up the speed from her own running for the jump, Judith made a long and high leap from the edge of the hillock to the air and landed to the open area full of the high berry bushes and some lone trees.

Judith then went to dead quiet after landing on her feet to the ground and, slowly and carefully, Judith looked around of her to catch with her eyes even a glimpse of movement in the bushes all around of her.

It was quiet, perhaps too quiet. Awkwardly quiet.

There was no one in seen… no any sight of that fox.

Judith felt how her heart was beating fast in tension due of awkward silence and such of loneliness in the open wild area.

Judith looked around of her one more time, but there was no any glimpse of movement in the bushes.

Judith looked at the ground, seeing the fox's footprints right front of her legs that led straight ahead to among of the bushes.

To find out that was the fox still around or already far away, Judy was about to sniff the air for the fox scent, until she suddenly and unexpectedly heard something from nearby.

The sound was the broken stick under the heavy step.

Startled by the unexpected sound in middle of the awkward silence, Judith quickly crouched down to hide behind and under the pushes and the spear in the self-defense position.

However, Judith mentally reminded herself that why she was on this mission far away from her homelands in the wild, and the startled expression on her face turned quickly into hard and more serious expression.

Judith took a one deep breath to calm herself, before she started step by step to sneak carefully and quietly, under of the wind, behind of the bushes and the spear ready in her paws towards the source of the sound, hoping the causer of the sound to be the certain fox she was looking for from the wild, so that she could kill it and head then back home satisfied of having finally avenged her father's death.

Judith took a cautious step forward…

…another…

…third…

…fourth…

…fifth…

…sixth…

…seventh…

…and the final eighth step, until she was very close of the source of the sound.

Then, she dared to look over the bushes to see what was behind of them.

Judith was supposed to rise up impatiently, calmly, slowly and carefully from behind of the bushes and only observe rather than act precipitately, but instead, already tired from the long journey after a certain and cowardly hiding behind the bushes from the certain one for what she had bitterly hunting down this far to kill for her father's death, Judith jumped up from the behind of the bushes and pointed with her spear at whatever was behind of the bushes

"Alright! I caught you now, you… huh? What?"

Judy was cut off from her words when she noticed that she was pointing with her spear at the woodchuck standing in the rock and staring at her, with the confused and maybe a bit startled expression on its face, due of Judy's sudden appearance and her spear.

Judy took at first confused and apologizing expression on her face and tried to apologize her actions from the woodchuck, only to be cut off and her apologies were replied with the words of highly rude tone.

"Hey, you stupid flatfoot, stop the childish intimidation of others and get lost! And quit the playing with a spear like it is some kind of toy before you really hurt someone else like me or yourself!" woodchuck said quite rudely.

As being already in the bad mood from the long and hard journey after the certain fox, Judith's expression and tone turned into darker and threatening-like.

"What about YOU get lost yourself and go to find someone else to call stupid flatfoot. Get lost yourself before I take my knifes for skinning work... STARTING FROM YOU!" Judith said and stretched the spear towards the woodchuck.

The woodchuck went immediately into shock after realizing how violently serious this bunny was right now and decided quickly leave from the scene before the bunny would do what she threatened to do to him.

In fear, woodchuck quickly disappeared into the bushes.

When the annoying animal was far away, Judith's expression turned back to calm.

Judith looked around of her yet a couple of times to see even a one single sight of the fox.

However, when she saw nothing around, she finally but very reluctantly came to the conclusion that the fox was probably already far away from her reach.

However, it did not get Judy to give up her mission, but after realizing that she had come a long and hard way until here without resting and eating at all, Judith decided to take the break.

So Judith, believing that there was no one around, took a deep and calm breath and threw her spear aside so that it stood almost vertical waiting for her to pick it up.

Judith sat down among the bushes, took her bag from her back and began to rummage the bag for something to eat, before he scould continue her journey.

Judith decided to eat couple of carrots.

She took the carrots out of the bag and was about to take one bite from one of them.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, Judith heard loud barking and growling behind of her back and the bushes. She was so startled that she dropped her carrots and turned around to see what was behind of her back, even though she was able to guess it easily.

To her shock and horror, it was the very same fox from the first battle on the glacier between of it and her family.

The gigantic fox wasn't looking at her. Its back was turned to her and it watched elsewhere.

Knowing that the fox could in any second turn around, Judith quickly snapped out of her shock and quickly... and almost panicking... crawled under of the bushed to cover herself.

Judith managed to get out of the sight nick in time when the fox eventually turned around to see behind of its back... probably sensing that there was someone luring among the bushed, because it probably heard a nearby bush leaves vibrating along the movements.

Nearly panicikng Judith forced herself mentally to calm down and breath deeply and calmly, even though she was so close, nearly next to her deadliest predator.

Judith then spotted her spear she left to stand vertical a small distance away from herself.

"Very smart from you to threw the spear aside right at the moment when you need it most than ever, you dumb bunny!" Judith scolded herself under her breath.

Judith started slowly and carefully to crawl towards her spear, still hiding under the bushes, in hope to get to and grab it into her paws without being undetected by the fox, so she can use her spear as her defense against the beast and finally finish her mission.

She was so close of grab her spear.

So close...

So close...

Suddenly, she heard the fox growling and snorting right next of her in the another side of the bushes, so by her rabbit instinct Judith immediately stopped and remained in still to prevent being detected by the fox.

The fox was probably eating some berries of the bushes and it did not paid any attention of her hidden presence so close of it.

Judy peeped carefully from her hiding place so that she was able to see the fox' large muzzle through the hole next of her head in the bush.

It was bad, really bad, because now when the fox's head and its nose were quite same level with her, this meaning that the fox could easily catch her scent.

She was saying...

The fox started suddenly sniff the air in her level.

And then, the fox snorted loudly.

This cannot mean any good... for Judith.

The fox had already got her scent into its nose and it was now fully aware that it wasn't alone, and that there was someone hiding from it among the bushes... and someone whose scent it already knew from the last encounter with the scent's owner.

The fox bared it's teeth and claws and started immediately slash the bushes with its claws to find the one hiding in the bushes, shredding violently the leaves into the shreds and cutting the small branches apart while searching for the source of the scent it knew. The fox growled and barked loudly and angrily snapped it's jaws among the leaves and branches in order to catch the one in the hide. The fox even dove into the bush to looking for the source of the scent among the leaves.

Judith was now in the great danger and she had to use her instincts a double-time to avoid the fox sharp and easily flesh-cutting claws, its deadly jaws and fangs and its attacks among the leaves. The fox probably believed that she was either the sitting or standing on a low in the bushes, so Judith had to crawl on the ground to reach to her spear.

Judith had also keep her ears down to avoid the fox snaps its jaws and fangs around of them and shred her ears or pull her out from the bush.

It was once so close to snaps its jaws around of her neck when Judith dared to stood on her knees and crawl on all fours to her spears. That mistake almost cost her her life in the fangs of the fox.

And what made the situation go worst, the fox had just found the source of the familiar scent hiding in the bushes. And when it did, it lunged at her direction. Judith managed nick in time to dodge and go into hid when the fox appeared behind of the leaves, slashing its claws and snapping its jaws and fangs all around of it to catch the source of the scent. But all what it shredded with its claws and snapped between of its jaws, was the bushes leaves and small branches.

The fox get more and more angrier when it failed to catch and kill the source of scent and started to barking and growling louder and louder. It even started violently rip the parts off the bushes to find the one in hiding faster.

It was gonna tear the whole bush apart to find Judith.

Being now herself hunted by the one which was originally to be hunted by her wasn't was Judith had actually in mind, especially when she had to hide from the originally hunted one, which has now gone into such of lust for blood after catching her scent into its nose.

The sound of the fox's claws shredding the leaves...

The sound of fox angrily rampaging in the bushes...

The fox's loud and bloodthirsty growls and barks...

And hiding from the beast despite she was the one who was supposed to be the hunter and not being herself hunted...

Judith closed her eyes and gathered for a minute all courage she had into herself.

"COME O'OOOON!" Judith shouted loudly as she suddenly leaped from her hiding spot towards her spear. Judith quickly grabbed it into her paws, made somersault on the ground due of her strong leap forward and quickly jumped on her feet the spear ready to fight.

Suddenly, she found herself once again in middle of the empty area.

The fox was gone.

"Where did it go?" Judith asked from herself as she looked around of her.

Judith did not dared to move a muscle, but not because of the cowardice which was usually common to the lone rabbit when there was the natural predator nearby, but rather to stand in the battle-position and the spear ready and wait for the fox to make its move against her at first, because Judith believed that when she had suddenly jumped out from the cover, the fox had probably wen t into hide like she did... but this time, the one in the hide was stalking her from the bushes.

However, nothing did not happen for a while.

Suddenly, Judith's sharp sense of hearing caught the growling sound a distance away from her, behind of her back.

Judith turned around to see the causer of the sounds, and she noticed the fox running away from her.

The fox probably had only recognized the scent as the same rabbit's scent, but it probably was not expecting to see her again so soon after their last encounter, and now in here in the wilderness with it, and even hunting it, judging from the spear the rabbit held.

The fox suddenly stopped and turned around to watch Judith.

The beast took the angry expression on its face and bared its teeth, growling and barking at Judy loudly, before the fox run off to the woods.

" _Not this time_." Judith darkly muttered as her expression turned into the harder, darker and filled by the pure and blind hate.

Even though the fox got the head start, Judith had come too far to avenge her father's death by finding and killing that fox, that there was no longer possibility for her to give up and turn back. Especially now when the fox was right a distance away from her grasp and she had no any intention to let it get away from it so easily after what it did to her.

Judith went into hot pursuit...

...even abandoning her bag behind because it would only slow her down when she was this close of her target. She can come back to retrieve it right after her mission was accomplished.

Judith rushed through the area's bushes and the trees of the nearby forest right behind of the fox, until eventually she and the fox arrived to a thick mist-covered and labyrinth-like rocky area, in which the high mountain tops rose as pointy or flat-peaked above the mist to the heavens.

However, Both Judith and the fox didn't cared about it because they both were focused on their own business. The fox was focusing to escape from Judith for its dear life and Judith was focused to hunt down and kill the fox at all cost.

The fox kept running through the area's rivers and labyrinth-like and the craggy passageways between of the rocks in order to lose Judith from its tracks, but because there was a lot of the wide and narrow pathways, holes, caves and alleys small enough for the small bunny to fit in and run in these pathways, holes, caves and alleys, Judith was once again right behind of the fox.

But as the slender and fast, due of running in all fours, and as the perfect climber, the fox managed to partially lose Judith behind, but in the every corner, before the fox was even able to get behind of the corner, Judith managed to reach in nick of time behind from another and see to where the fox went.

The fox seemed to not care where it was even going. It's only goal was get far away from the rabbit and it kept running in the craggy pathways.

This eventually led the fox to end up to the watery dead end, which was surrounded bu the high and craggy bowl-like stone walls, where it started nervously to look around the way out before the rabbit gets there.

Judith had to admit that she lost the fox in these craggy pathways, but the pure hate which dwelled in her heart, refused to allow her to give up from the hunt.

Using her sense of hearing, she heard the nervous growls and barks coming from the rocky and craggy pathways, which seemed to lead into the dead end.

"Hah, I caught you now!" Judith said triumphantly and rushed through the pathway after the fox following its loud and echoing growls and barks.

However, when she reached to there, she found the dead end being empty and there was no sight of the fox.

"Blasted!" Judith said. She could not believe that the fox got away from her again. Judith let out the loud snort in annoyance and frustration.

"Where it went now?"

Judith got the answers she needed very soon.

Her ears suddenly caught from behind of her the sound of the falling rocks falling from the peak of the stone walls, telling her that someone... or something... was running right above of her.

Judith turned around to see the fox running on the peak of the stone walls. It had a long head start again, but the fox seemed to instead of fading from the area to climb up along the rock.

This gave to Judith more than just a big advantage. By climbing up the fox will not only get far away from her but also traps itself to the flat peak of the small mountain.

Perfect place to trap the fox, cut all the ways to escape from it and then...

"Come to mama, you stupid flea-coat!" Judith said and with the sly grin on her lips, knowing that she had outsmarted the fox now, started to climb up the craggy stone walls to get after the fox and drive it into the final trap.

The climbing was quite slow from her, but knowing that she was now so close of her goal, Judith climbed as fast as he could, but using only the certain amount of energy for climbing in order to save the energy she needs to fight against the fox and kill it once and for all.

As the bigger animal and the predator, the fox had lots of energy to jump from the rock to rock while climbing on the stone wall more higher and higher and faster than Judith.

The fox reached at first to the flat peak above of the clouds of fog, which was a quite flat and roughly wide from middle of it but it had a craggy edges. The peak also had a three corners, one of which was in the other side of the peak and two others were in the another side of the peak. The lone corner of the peak, which was pushing out from the peak, was half more narrow than the peak itself. It was located slightly beneath of the peak's edge and it also slightly curved upwards as it pushed out from the peak, ending up to the tip of the corner, where was standing a large round boulder that was attached into the corner's tip's the solid rock. the two other corners towered in angular positions upwards to the sky, above of the level of the peak itself. And just like the lone narrow corner in the other side of the peak, these upwards towering corners narrowed always to their tips as well. And in between of these corners was a craggy mountainside full of edges and cliffs in the different high levels with a small distances from each others. It served as a only way off from the peak and entrance to the peak.

The fox quickly ran to the another side of the peak, only to find it to be the dead end, which led to the fatal fall down.

The fox looked around of it nervously to find the way to escape from the peak, but there was not the one, except the jumping off the cliff.

Then Judith's arrived to the peak, blocking the only way off the peak.

"Trap like rat... or like some stupid fox!" Judith shouted triumphantly as she prepared for the rematch.

The fox turned around and saw Judith standing the spear in her paws right behind of it.

The fox knew that it was in trap in here and at the mercy of the rabbit with the spear, but it certainly was not about to let a rabbit get it without a fight. Judith knew that too well.

Judith kind of hoped fox attacking her, at first, so this match would not be too easy for her.

As her father had taught to her, the scars the hunter has got from the fight against cornered animal will strengthen the hunter, making him to become physically and mentally more stronger and more sustainable for the following contests against the predators that are a threat to her people.

Baring its teeth and claws and growling loudly, the fox started slowly but menacingly approach Judith, but it still remained far away from the reach of the spear.

Judith believed that the fox tried to sneak to her flanks and attack from her defenseless side, so she had to keep moving and keep the spear in the self-defense position and ready for any attack the fox could unleash upon her.

Then the fox, after getting close enough of Judith, loudly and angrily barking jumped on all fours and lunged savagely at Judith.

The fox's sudden and unexpected move and even so close of her startled Judith so badly that she barely had time to even prepare to defend herself.

The fox knew that it has caught the rabbit off guard and it leaped towards her the teeth and claws bared and ready to dig into Judy's flesh in around of her throat and stomach.

The fox's attack caused startled and nearly panicking Judith to back off so hastily, that she tripped over her own feet and fell roughly to the ground on her back.

She was right now at the fox's mercy.

However, Judith quickly snapped herself out from the shock and horror and quickly rolled out of the fox way before it could dick its claws on her. The fox landed roughly to the ground behind of her, affording to it a little difficulties to get back on its feet. This gave to Judith the chance to get up and strive out of reach of fox and prepare herself more better for it's upcoming attacks.

However, the fox suddenly and quickly get up on its feet as well, turned around and tried once again slash Judith with its claws targeting to her back. The fox barely missing Judith's back but it manage to slash three long cut to Judith's fur shirt when she tried to quickly get up on her feet.

The fox lunged at her again and this time when Judith was about to turn around and face the fox. She was caught off guard again when the fox waved its clawed paw towards her and slashed three new cuts to Judith's fur clothes, this time in the place of her chest, barely missing again to claw her body.

Judith had dodged the fox claws nick in time, avoiding them to slash her body, but this had caught her full attention that she did noticed that the fox prepared to another attack and surprised Judith by hitting her into the face with its clawed paw.

The strike was so strong, that it sent Judith to fly to another side of the peak.

After Judith landed quite roughly to the ground, she slowly climbed on her feet rubbing her left cheek. The fox's claws did not caused so bad damage on her face, with the exception of three small but slightly bleeding scratches on her cheek.

Now Judith had enough of this and bravely ignored the scratches and a light pain on her cheek and turned to face the fox one more time.

As the fox charged at her, Judith charged at it too, the spear prepared to the fatal stab. Judith pulled the spear backwards and then with all of her strength she drew it towards the fox.

But the fox dodged the spear quickly and grabbed it to its mouth taking a firm hold from the spear with its jaws.

The fox then jumped on its lower limbs and with all the natural strength of the fox, the beast pulled the spear, and Judith with it, into the air.

"WHOOOOAAAAHHHH!" Judith screamed as the fox swung Judith towards the edge of the peak, almost causing Judith to fly over the cliff to the certain death. But with all of her rabbit strength, Judith managed to keep her grip tightly on her spear.

The fox turned one more time around and then tossed Judith aside.

Judith landed roughly on her back to the ground, but she barely had time to get up and prepare until the fox lunged at her, barking savagely and opening its mouth to snap Judith's neck into a lethal bite between of its bared and sharp teeth and powerful jaws.

Judith raised her spear into the defense position as the fox lunged at her, but its lunge was so powerful that it tossed Judith once again backwards and roughly to the ground, that Judith was just under of the fox and between of its front legs. Judith had also managed to put her spear in between of the beast jaws and pushed with all of her strength the spear backwards, so the animal would not be able to bite her on the area of her head or throat.

But still, the larger and more powerful fox had kind of pinned her down and she was once again at the fox's mercy.

 **...**

Meanwhile, Jill, who had followed Judith throughout the journey, arrived to the misty rock area.

Like the last time before battling the fox, Jill had followed Judith by looking for the footprints on the ground Judith had left behind while following the fox's trail and Jill also used her sense of smell by every now and then sniffing the air to catch Judith's scent to find out in which direction she went.

During the trip, Jill had found Judith's lunch bag she had abandoned and picked it with her from the open bush field.

Jill wandered now in the craggy pathways of this foggy rock area trying to find her little sister, even though she had no idea how she was gonna find her from these rocky labyrinth-like pathways, tunnels, caves and alleys, which had hundreds in this region where was impossible to find any footprints from the rocky ground and there smelled strongly and disgustingly like morass, covering all the scent relating to her little sister.

However, Jill did not wanted to give up, not until she had found her little sister.

However, when she arrived one of the many craggy pathways, she saw movement at the top of a small mountain.

Jill looked up there and saw two figures who were like struggling with each other at the top.

One of them looked quite unmistakably a fox, which looked identically the very same one which she had encountered with her little sister and father yesterday. And another one under of the beast looked like rabbit, which looked like a...

"Judith!" Jill gasped in shock after quickly recognizing the rabbit under of the beast.

Realizing that her little sister was in danger of death, Jill quickly continued her way through the pathways with a double-time speed, trying desperately reach to that mountain and to her sister's aid before it would be too late.

 **...**

At the same time on the peak, Judith was now in the real trouble.

The fox had started shook violently its head while Judith's spear was still on its jaws.

And then, much to Judith's shock and horror, the fox tore the spear out of her paws.

Judith was now defenseless without her spear and once again the easy prey for the fox.

As the fox tossed the spear aside and turned back to Judith, Judith stayed under of the beast trying to keep up with the fox movements to avoid it's teeth and calws

The fox tried to reach to Judith while trying to move to the position where it could catch the bunny in its teeth or slash her with her claws.

The fox was twice really close to snap it's jaws around of Judith's fluffy tail, almost managing to rip her tail off.

Judith knew that without her spear she cannot hold her own against the fox long enough, she had to get out from under of the fox.

As the fox had turned around to snap its jaws again towards Judith's tail, Judith grasped the opportunity and ran quickly out from under of the fox yet when the fox's attention was elsewhere.

The fox still tried to catch Judith from under of it even though Judith wasn't under of it anymore.

The fox was confused for a moment about the rabbit's sudden disappearance from beneath of it, before it realized that Judith was no longer under of it.

The fox then lifted its head and spotted Judith running away from it. The beast growled angrily and rushed after her on all fours.

The fox caught her quickly, even though the rabbits were one of the fastest animals. Probably due of the fact that Judith was slowly getting tired.

As the fox lunged at her numerous times, Judith used her natural evasive maneuvers to avoid the fox's attacks as the beast run right behind of her, moving faster and more furiously than before under the blind lust for blood, while trying to slash with its sharp claws Judith's back and lower limbs and snap its jaws trying to reach Judith's neck.

Judith barely managed to dodge and avoid all of these attacks, even though the fox was once reached to next of her and with the quick move the fox was so close to snap its jaws and sharp fangs around of her waist, nearly delivering the lethal bite.

When this failed, the fox kept pursuing her.

There was luckily the lonely and old hollow tree trunk near the edge of the cliff, so Judith changed her direction right towards that tree.

And when she reached to it, Judith quickly jumped on its lower branches and climbed through of them to the top of the trunk out of the fox's reach, and once again nick in time as the fox reached to the tree, jumped against the tree and tried to slash Judith once again with its claws, nearly scratching her legs.

The trunk was high enough that even that sized fox couldn't reach to her, no matter how it tried to reach her with its fangs by jump around the tree.

Like Judith had earlier said, the rabbits are not made to fly. In this case, the foxes are not made to climb in the trees like some feline mammals such of lynxes and cougars.

But, the fox paid its attention to the facts that the trunk was dangerously close of the edge of the cliff and that the trunk could be many years old, and maybe even rot.

The fox then jumped on its lower limbs, leaning against the trunk and started with all of its strength to push the trunk over of the edge of the cliff.

The couple hard pushes were nearly enough to move the old and rot trunk up from the roots off the ground, nearly sending Judith to fall off from its top over the edge of the cliff and down to the certain death.

She barely managed to keep her balance on the top of the trunk.

But when her eyes looked down, she gasped in shock and horror.

"No, no, NO, NO, NO!" Judith cried as she quickly and hurriedly climbed back to the top of the trunk after witnessing how high the drop-down from the cliff down to the craggy river was.

The fox had gained the upper paw over her now.

Judith looked down at the fox. It's entire attention was now locked to pushing the trunk, including her, over the cliff so it probably wasn't expecting anything unexpected.

Then Judith raised her head and locked her eyes to her spear, which was laying on the ground far away from both of them.

Judith considered this for a moment, but after realizing that she did not have time to do that and that the risk is really great, she was forced to try.

And then, as the fox delivered the final push which finally pushed the trunk over the cliff, Judith jumped nick in time off the top fo the trunk before falling with it over the cliff and landed between of the fox's shoulders and rolled down on it's back, finally landing roughly to the ground right behind of the beast's back.

The landing on the fox stunned the beast briefly, but enough for Judith to recover from the rough landing before she started to crawl hastily towards her spear.

The fox also recovered and turned around, seeing Judith crawling towards her spear.

Growling loudly and furiously for the many failed attempts to kill the rabbit, the fox rushed after her with the savage rage.

Judith turned briefly around, seeing the fox coming right towards her.

Judith was very tired from the long and hard journey after that fox and from the fight with it, but being mauled and then eaten alive by that fox did not pleased her at all.

She had to reach to her spear before the fox reach to her.

Judith crawled in panic ten times faster than the one year old baby towards her spear.

The fox was almost right on her tail.

Judith was yet one and a half meters from the spear.

The fox already breathed in her neck.

"I have to make it to the spear! I have to! I HAVE TO!" Judith shouted almost in the tone of panic.

So close...

So close...

Fox was still incoming!

So close!

When Judith was about to reach her spear, the fox opened its mouth, bared it's fangs and barking angrily it lunged at Judith for the final and finishing strike towards her neck!

"NOOOO!" Judith cried as she quickly grabbed to her spear, turned around to the fox and raised her spear with both of her paws into acute angle and taking with its other end the support from the ground and as the fox leaped towards her, Judith turned her head away from the fox and closed tightly her eyes, waiting for what was coming for her.

 **...**

Beneath of the peak.

Jill kept hastily going in the pathways, trying desperately to find the way to that mountain's, on top of which she had saw her little sister struggling with the fox, feet so she can climb us to help her sister, which was more easier said than done due of these pathways and dead-end ending alleys being labyrinth-like.

And then...

LOUD YELP OF PAIN!

Jill suddenly heard a loud and nearly yelp of pain-sounding sound echoing in the air and the air-space of the pathways, which suddenly stopped Jill from running and looking in the air surprised and worrying.

Jill quickly looked around in the air, trying to find out from where the sound had came from so she could follow it and get to the feet of the mountain.

Using her own sense of hearing, which was not as good as Judy's own, Jill managed kind of to locate the direction from where the sound had came from and kept moving in the pathways.

It did not take long until...

MMMRRRAAAAAAARGH!

Jill heard another loud cry echoing in the air-space of the area and stopped at once to locate the direction of the sound with her ears.

The first cry was a much louder and deeper growling-like cry but this one was quite lighter and woman-like, or then she and the source of the cry were long distance from each other that it sounded like it.

Jill get more worried, because she wasn't sure, that was that cry either cry of pain or something else if not the cry for help, but its gotta be Judith. She was sure of that and quickly believed that probably her sister was no longer able to hold her own against the fox.

"Hang on, Judith! I'm coming!" Jill shouted desperately but self-encouraging after locating the direction of the sound again and rushed to the pathways, ignoring also the fact that the fog, plus thundering clouds, was increasing and becoming more and more thicker all around of the area, but mostly in the air-space around of the mountain to where she was hurrying up.

 **to be continued...  
**

 **I hope you enjoyed of reading this chapter.**

 **As you probably saw, I made this rematch between of Judith and the fox a bit more violent than what it was in the film between of Kenai and the bear.**


	6. Chapter 6: Transformation

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 6: TRANSFORMATION**

 ** **It's time to continue my story with one of my most favorite scene of the original film, as my own version in my story.****

 **ENJOY THE READING**

On a mountain top, there was a deep silence all around up there afterwards of the fight between Judith and the fox.

The fox was at the moment lying on the ground in the middle of the a mountain top. The fox did not move. It did not let any kind of sound in form of growling, panting and snorting out from its mouth while lying on the ground and It did not do anything to climb back up on its feet. It's eyes were closed. It's head was lying on it's right side against the ground, its mouth was hanging open and did not do any kind of effort to close and it's front limbs were outspread.

Then, there was movement in beneath of the fox's body's fur

"Get off me, you big stinky flea-nest!" Growled the light sound as someone beneath the fox body was struggling to get out from under of the fox's heavy body.

First came out the grey paws and then the arms.

And then came out Judith's head.

She was alive and quite unharmed, except a few scratches and bruises and her less than half shredded clothes.

With her paws, Judith struggled to pull herself out from underneath of the fox and taking support with her paws and eventually with her legs, she finally got out from underneath of the fox.

Judith gasped in shock as she saw the fox lying next of her, the grave silent and motionless.

It's done.

She had finally done it.

THE FOX WAS DEAD, SLAYED BY HER PAW.

Her father's death has been finally and truly avenged.

Physically and even mentally exhausted from the hunt and fight with the fox, panting but yet victorious and proud of it, Judy let out in the air her loud cry of triumphant.

"MMMRRRAAAAAAARGH!"

Her cry of of triumphant spread echoing in the air.

And then, due to a deep exhaustion, sweaty Judith fell on her knees taking support from the peak's surface with her paws, closed her tired eyes and panted loudly and rapidly.

During of this, she completely ignored the unnatural movement on the clouds, which inexplicably started to gather from everywhere around of the peak, turning the sky around of her slowly but certainly into the light gray, then into dark gray and then completely dark.

The was also the rumbling of the thunder in the clouds, telling that the thunderstorm was coming, but exhausted Judith only ignored it.

Suddenly, to the peak with her and the dead fox's body appeared out of nowhere the strange glowing and gracefully in the air smoothly floating blue _Lights_ and more the similar things was coming from among the clouds towards her.

As they appeared, there was the loud and echoing whispers all around.

Their bright blue-light glowing forms, magical-sounding gentle sound and their odd whispering got Judith's attention as the _Lights_ started to circle around of her.

When she saw the lights, she gasped surprised at first, until her eyes widened and her mind went almost half-paralyzed by the amazement and unnatural sight she saw right in front of her eyes.

"What...? What are these...? Whatta...?" Judith asked from herself in amazement and a little frightened of this.

Then, some kind of gigantic and glowing blue beam fell from the thunderclouds towards the center of the peak.

Immediately snapping out of her amazement after seeing this, Judith quickly grabbed her spear into her paws and jumped on her feet. She rushed as fast as she could out of the way of this strange beam.

Then, the beam hit to the ground of the peak, but it strangely started to act like the glowing waterfall, which cause Judith to go high place to avoid this strange thing.

Judy gasped again in amazement and fear when the blue glowing thing, whatever it was, started to spread from the beam all around of the peak like the water being poured into the empty pot. This water-like thing waved highly and flooded over the edge of the peak's cliffs like in the waterfalls.

The fiercely but quite gently and harmlessly flooding water quickly calmed down and the surface was smooth flat even though the water was still flooding.

Even though Judith was still afraid to, she dared to slowly climb a little bit down from the rock she had took shelter from the strange flood whatever it was.

Judith carefully extended out her right leg towards the flood's surface, which sent the small vibration waves on the move in the water-like thing's surface from the spot where Judith stretched her foot, before pulling it quickly back.

The water-like thing did not seem to be physically harming stuff.

Judy dared then completely climb down from the rock to the water-like thing, which seemed to reach to her waist.

The glowing water-like things wasn't like the real water. Judith did not feel at all the water's natural coldness nor her clothes and feet getting wet. It was like she was walking in the clouds.

However, Judith's eyes and her entire attention was locked to the shiny beam in middle of the peak.

Albeit afraid of this, Judith dared to take the slowly the step after step towards the strange beam out of curiosity but she also told herself to be fully alerted, holding her spear tightly in her paws ready to self-defense and being ready for anything bad what may happen if something goes suddenly wrong.

Judith took one step towards of the beam...

And another one...

And another...

Another...

And one more time another step, until she was right next of the odd beam.

Nothing bad did not happened so far, even though she was this close of whatever this is.

Judy circled half of the beam the spear still pointed at it, covering her eyes with her arm because in this close the beam's blue light was so bright yet not blinding.

Curiously, Judith eyed the bright, magical and water-like beam carefully and alerted from its feet to up to the sky and, still wandering that what it was anyway, started to think that what will happen if she touches the beam with either her paw or then with her spear.

When the curiousness took her over, she raised her spear's spearhead up and stretched it towards the beam.

BIG FLASH!

The blue glowing beam suddenly and unexpectedly either disappeared or changed its form soon after Judith's spear touched the beam, and immediately the colors turned into bright and blinding flash of red, orange and yellow colors, which filled the entire air space all around of the peak.

A sudden change in the bright colors right in front of the eyes caught Judith completely off guard, nearly blinding her in the process. Due to this, Judith hastily backed off and quickly fell on her knees to the ground, closing her eyes to prevent them from getting blinded by those lights.

Then, Judith heard the deep and echoing sounds of the animals all around of her.

When Judith opened her eyes again, she almost jumped up on her feet by the great and deep amazement of what she was seeing, or either dreaming.

The dark sky was filled with the bright _Northern Lights_ , which were dancing all around of the peak's air space, and among the dancing lines of the _Lights_ was running, dancing, flying and bellowing deeply and loudly thousands of different kind of animals, big and small, young and adults, all of them in the golden and glowing spirit-forms: Such of large and mighty woolly mammoths, woolly rhinoceros, musk oxen, moose, deer, caribous, woolly bighorn sheep, wild horses, large bears, packs of wolves and saber-tooth-tigers, lynxes, cougars, otters, woodchucks, great number of rabbits, turtles, squirrels, skunks, opossums, porcupines, foxes, raccoons, badgers, wild boars, squirrels, weasels, chipmunks, mice, the birds such of eagles, gooses and seagulls, salmons and even killer whales and many other mammal species.

Judith looked at all of this in deep paralyzing amazement, until she snapped out of it when she was suddenly frightened when the flock of Spirits in the forms of salmons suddenly and swiftly "swum" through of her chest like the ghosts.

When the Spirit in the form of the huge killed whale approached her with the mouth widely opened and "seemingly" prepared to swallow Judith at whole. Judith, due to her earlier encounter with the living killer whale earlier, reacted to this by lifting up her spear in the self-defense position, ready to defend herself while hastily backing off, but at the same time taking care that she doesn't back off carelessly over the edge and fall down.

And then when the Spiritual orca eventually reached to her, the whale only floated through of the peak, during of which Judith was caught into the whale's mouth and went through the whale's entire intellectual form as it floated away.

Such of experience felt like the blow of the wind, but it didn't make Judith to feel better. She jumped back on her feet and still held her spear in the self-defense position.

But when the herd of the intellectual forms of the great and mighty woolly mammoths slowly passed her and the peak, Judith looked at them with the amazement look on her face and also with the fearful respect.

But she took once again her spear in the self-defense position immediately as she heard the howling of the wolves nearby.

Very soon, as the howling promised, the pack of glowing Spiritual forms of large gray wolves arrived to the peak. Yelping and howling, the Spiritual canines were leaping in the air and on the peak all around of Judith, without harming her in any way like the real wolves always does, and because of this, Judith didn't felt herself better in between of these Spiritual wolves.

She in fact have never liked the canine animals, such of wolves and especially the foxes.

The spiritual wolves kept doing this for a while before they scattered among the _Northern Lights_.

" _JUDITH_." The deep and in the air echoing voice suddenly called from behind of Judith.

The voice which Judith, much to her shock, immediately recognized.

From among of the the _Lights_ and the other Spiritual animals of the lights, towards her was flying the gigantic golden bald eagle, which flied above of the peak and was about to land to the peak right in front of Judith, who looked at the eagle in amazement.

When the eagle was about to land to the surface of the peak, it unexpectedly and miraculously started to change its form... which much to Judith's shock turned to the form of the golden light glowing old rabbit.

And not anyone rabbit, but...

"Father?!" Judith whispered in shock and disbelief and slowly knelt down.

The rabbit was no one else than Stu Hopps, her father.

However, rather than happy to see his daughter again even after his tragic death, instead, Stu had the sad and deeply disappointed expression in his face as he looked down at her daughter Judith.

" _JUDITH, MY DAUGHTER. YOU'VE BROUGHT THE GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT AND TURNED YOUR HEART AWAY FROM YOUR ANCESTORS._ " Stu said with the deep, echoing and scolding-like tone.

"What?" Judy gasped, but not due to what her father just said but instead of the tone of voice with which her father was speaking to her.

" _THIS WAS MORE THAN JUST NEEDLESS, MY DAUGHTER._ "

"But father. Why are you so mad at me? I though that I finally put your spirit in peace by avenging you with the monster's blood." Judith said humbly.

" _THIS WASN'T THE PATH THE GREAT SPIRITS GAVE TO YOU, JUDITH._ " Stu scolded.

"B-but... the Spirits..." Judith tried to protest, but Stu interrupted her.

" _YOU WERE GIVEN THE GREAT GIFT FROM THE GREAT SPIRITS, WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO GUIDE YOU ON YOUR PATH, BUT INSTEAD, YOU'VE UNASHAMEDLY REJECTED YOUR GIFT OF THE SPIRITS AND CHOSE THE PATH OF HATRED AND VENGEANCE AGAINST THE ANIMAL WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO SERVE AS YOUR TOTEM... AND NOW YOU'VE SPILLED THE INNOCENT BLOOD. THIS IS AN OUTRAGE, MY DAUGHTER_!" Stu scolded.

Judith's eyes widened as she heard the word "innocent" told about the fox she just killed.

"I-innocent? Did you just called that monster innocent? B-but, father. That fox. It was a savage! A savage deadly monster which got you killed in the first place!" Judith protested.

Stu shook his head at his stubborn daughter.

" _I GUESS YOU DIDN'T LISTEN YOUR BIG SISTER BACK IN THE CAVE, JUDITH. JILL HAD EVEN FOR ONCE MORE WISDOM THAN YOU HAVE RIGHT NOW. BESIDES, WHAT HAPPENED BACK THERE GLACIER DID NOT GAVE YOUR RIGHT TO SLAY THE INNOCENT ANIMAL THE SPIRITS CHOSE AS YOUR TOTEM ANIMAL._ "

Then Judith jumped back on her feet.

"But the Spirits made the mistake by choosing the fox as my totem, father, and now. If the totem would have been some other animal, this would never have happened. And now, I had to clean up the mess they caused." Judith protested with the persistent tone, but mentally fighting against the urge to rise her spear... against her own father.

Stu seemed to sense that clearly and snorted in disgust at her own daughter stubborn beliefs.

" _SO, YOU BELIEVE THAT THE PROBLEM IS IN EVERYBODY ELSE AROUND OF YOU, INCLUDING THE GREAT SPIRITS THEMSELVES, EXCEPT IN YOU YOURSELF, DO YOU_?" Stu asked with the scolding tone.

Judith backed off a little bit away from her father, both shocked and confused.

" _THEN, JUDITH, MY DAUGHTER... I'M AFRAID AND THAT YOU LEAVE ME WITH NO CHOICE BUT MAKE YOU UNDERSTAND BY THE HARD WAY AS I'M DEMANDED_." Stu said and turned his attention at the fox's dead body and raised his left paw up towards the _Northern Lights_.

Judith also turned her attention at the fox's body.

Suddenly and completely inexplicably, from the fox's body started to rise the strange lights like the flickering flames, which started to consume the every part and every hair of the fox's dead body like the fire consumes the wood in the bond fire but faster, starting from its back and spreading through of its body until its head, limbs and its tail, ending to the tips of the nose, fingers, toes and its tail. The fox's body disappeared into the light which raised among the _Northern Lights_ , leaving no any physical trace of the body of a fox, except the small pools of blood from the fox lethal stab wound in its chest from Judith's spear.

The fox was now gone by body and soul.

Amazed from this amazing and inexplicable sight, Judith turned slowly around and almost panting in panic back to her father, only to find her father being gone from the place where he was standing a moment ago.

Judith looked hastily around of her to see, where her father did go, not noticing that the area and the air space around of her was getting more and more brighter.

And then...

She felt something grabbing her from behind.

Judith looked down and saw that the gigantic red and golden lights glowing spiritual clawed toes of the bald eagle had wrapped around of her body into the tight hold. They grabbed around of Judith's body so unexpectedly that by the reflexes Judith dropped her spear from her paws.

And then, the golden eagle lifted Judith up from the peak and took her in middle of the dancing beams of the _Northern Lights_.

" _THIS WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO GO LIKE THIS, JUDITH, BUT YOU'VE MADE YOUR CHOICE_." The mighty eagle said with Judith's father's voice, telling to Judith that the eagle was her father in the form of spiritual gigantic eagle.

As they flied higher and higher in the middle of the _Northern Lights_ and not knowing what was happening, Judith went into panic.

"What? Father? Fa-father! L-let me go! W-w-what are you d-doing?! PLEASE! PUT ME DOWN! PLEASE, FATHER! I BEG YOU! PLEASE!" Judith said panicking.

" _I'M SORRY, JUDITH, BUT I'M DEMANDED TO DO THIS TO YOU_. AND THERE'S NO GOING BACK FROM WHAT'S ALREADY DONE" Stu said, not making Judith feel any better.

"W-WHAT ARE YOU T-TALKING ABOUT, FATHER?! WHAT IS THIS?! W-WHAT ARE Y-YOU GOING TO D-DO TO ME?!"

" _EVERYTHING YOU NEED IS TO SEE THE THINGS DIFFERENTLY AND HOW THEY ARE... IN ANOTHER ONE'S EYES, JUDITH. AND THE TRUE REASON WHY I'M DOING THIS, YOU'LL FIND IT OUT BY YOURSELF... IN TIME_."

Then...

Stu spread his eagle form's wings to wide and then he closed them around of Judith. And when he did so, the some kind of very bright golden and white light surrounded Judith's body and Stu's spiritual eagle form faded away into the _Northern Lights_.

And then, to around of magically knocked Judith unconscious, formed from the lights the great golden and red glowing spiritual head of the RED FOX.

And then, the spiritual head of the red fox scattered like the clouds into the golden-red flame-like lights, which started to swirl around of Judith's unconscious body, swirling her body with them.

As the lights approached Judith's unconscious body and swallowed her in the lights, her bunny form started slowly but certainly and magically change: Her limbs lengthened and her entire body grow taller, even though her body kept its slender form. Her head and face started to form into the canine-like with the long snout and shorter but pointed ears and her little puffy cotton tail formed into long and bushy tail. During of this strange transformation, her clothes were torn apart as her bunny form turned into the canine-like form, that was larger compared to the bunnies size.

And when the lights finally faded away from around of her, Judith's form had completely turned from the rabbit into the form of the RED FOX!

Despite being turned into the red fox, only her gray fur color and her nose's pink color, plus her black tipped ears, were left from her former bunny form.

After the transformation was done, the spirits set Judith, still being magically unconscious, inside of her body surrounding golden glowing force-field, which slowly, carefully and with the in the air floating movement put her safely back to the peak through the _Northern Lights_.

And after when her fox form was safely back in the peak, the magical force-field faded away from around of her body. And after that, the enchantment, which kept her body and mind unconscious throughout the entire process, was then broken and she slowly get up on all fours, completely unaware of her transformation and current appearance.

And then, the _Northern Lights_ and the spirits with them quickly disappeared from the air space around of the peak to the sky and the tone of the brightness in the air turned from darker to a bit lighter.

And after they were disappeared, the _Northern Lights_ were replaced by the fierce thunderstorm.

Starting at first from the bright lightnings, which struck all around the peak before it started to rain heavily.

Then.

Two small bunny paws appeared on the edge of the cliff as it started to rain.

It was Jill.

Because of the thunderclouds surrounding the peak of the mountain, on top of which she had seen her sister struggling with the fox, she was completely unaware that what was going on the peak.

After the long and desperate searching, Jill had found the right pathway, which led her to the feet of the mountain, and when she arrived there, she immediately started to climb the craggy rock wall of the mountain trying to reach to the peak in time to help her sister.

From the tiny bunny, the climbing was slow and dangerously hard, which was also hampered by thick cloud cover.

While climbing, Jill lost her spear after she struck it into the wall in order to use the spear as support while of climbing, but her weight snapped the spear in half and it fell into abyss, forcing Jill to continue the climbing without it.

Even though she had no idea how she was gonna help her sister without the spear against the fox which almost sliced her with its claws and almost caused her to fall into the hole back in the glacier.

However, she had to try.

And when she arrived to the peak, exhausted from the climbing due to having used most of her strength to get to the peak, she heard the growling and whimpering, which sounded just like the fox.

Jill raised her head to see.

She saw the fox walking a some distance away from her.

But when she looked down right front of her nose, she gasped in shock and her eyes widened in horror.

There was the spear lying on the ground, Judith's shredded fur clothes lying all around... and the pool of blood!

"No!" Jill whispered.

She had came too late, or at least she believed so.

Jill could not believe what she saw. Fox was still alive, and judging by her sister's shredded clothes and a pools of blood, fox had managed to kill her and eat her whole, leaving no any bloody body parts nor gnawed bones of her body.

And then, the fox turned its head towards Jill, having heard her coming from behind from the splats he legs caused when she stepped in the pools of water made by the heavy rain.

Jill gasped and, in deep shock, horror and even in fear, fell backwards on her butt and crawled away from the fox, excepting the beast now coming after her in the lust for more flesh and blood of the rabbit.

However, the fox only stared at her seemingly in dizzy state, what Jill didn't saw due of being some distance away from it. The fox shook its head, seemingly to shake off the water from its head's fur, but in fact to get its head more clearer.

The fox was about to turn around towards Jill, until the strong thunderbolt struck to the peak, right next of the fox.

The bright flash and the explosive sound of the thunderbolt's strike to the stone surface of the peak, made from the bright flash blinded fox to yelp in shock and jump hastily backwards.

Bad mistake, because the fox was standing right next of the edge of the peak.

Jill quickly get up on her feet and rushed to the edge where the fox had stood a second ago.

Jill looked down over the edge and saw the fox falling growling and barking into the fog bellow the edge of the peak.

The fox, Judith in fact what Jill didn't knew, fell growling and barking down through the long fall... during of which she hit her head roughly into the stone, which pussed out from the stone wall... until she plopped into the river.

The strong current dragged her under the surface, putting her into grave danger of drowning.

As Judith was taken away by the current, she was repeatedly and roughly hammered by the wooden logs in underwater and from underwater peeping rocks into the bruises. Judith, after partially regaining her consciousness back, even tried to fight back against the current, but the river was too strong for her to swim.

Eventually she was completely knocked out by the mega hit from the rock into her head.

Strong currents of the river roughly took Judith's unconscious body a long way along the river, far away from the rocky area, until the river's currents slowed and calmed down, drifting her body along the river.

And when the long way along the river was far behind, Judith's unconscious body was finally washed ashore next of the coniferous forest, and there she remained the rest of this strange night by lying on the ground unconscious.

 **Meanwhile...**

Back in the peak, when Jill did not saw any sight of the fox anymore after it fell into the fog, she retreated from the edge of the peak and walked to it what was left from her poor little sister.

Jill still could not believe that she was once again lost yet another member of the family and this time officially in the claws and teeth of the same fox. Still in the deep shock, she knelt down next of Judith's shredded fur clothes.

Jill, with the tearful eyes, picked the shredded clothes from the ground and squeezed them into her paws.

She was even able to hear herself speaking the same lines she had said to Judith before she departed and went after the fox.

 _"I don't blame that fox, Judith!"_ She heard herself in her mind.

Jill closed her eyes, deeply ashamed that she had said like this to her own sister and now she was deeply blaming herself for Judith's "death" due to not going with her sister when she had the chance, but instead following her much later and because of that, getting to her sister too late.

Jill then, wiping the out of nowhere appeared tears from her eyes and the rain water off from her face, get up on her feet and turned to return back to her home village Judith's shredded clothes with her for another funerals.

 _"A mature woman wouldn't just sit here and do nothing!"_ Jill heard again the voice speaking in her mind, and this time in Judith's voice.

Jill stopped for a minute after she heard this in her mind.

And then, she took out into her paws Judith's totem from her fur pants pocket, The Friendship of the Fox, and held it in middle of her paw looking at it in deep silent.

Even though she didn't loved the foxes and that such of totem was chosen to be given to Judith, Jill started slowly to feel that maybe her sister was right all a long about of vengeance against the fox, even if it was of course against all of it what she had said to Judith back in the cave after their father's funeral and before her departure for the fox hunt.

Jill then turned her attention to Judith's spear and slowly picked it from the ground.

Jill looked at it for a long time thoughtfully of her the next decision, which she was about to do right now.

And then, the expression of her face turned into harder... and even into darker look.

The spark of vengeful hatred broke out in flames in her heart.

She had made her final decision.

She was going to finish it in which Judith had failed... once and for all!

And as the symbol of her decision, she wrapped Judith's totem around of her spear, right below the rocky spearhead, and silently swore in her mind that she was not going to rest until the blood of the beast responsible of her father's and now her sister's death drains down the spear as the vengeance.

 **To be continue...**

 **I hope you enjoyed of reading this chapter.**

 **Nearly the only error between of my version and the original movie's version is that Stu is able to speak even in the spirit form, unlike in the film, where the spirits didn't spoke at all in their spiritual human forms.**


	7. Chapter 7: First Dawn as the Fox

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 7: FIRST DAWN AS THE FOX  
**

 **ENJOY THE READING  
**

As the daylight started to rise upon the forest, the warm and bright light beams hit to Judy's eyes.

Because of its brightness, it was a bit difficult for her to open her eyes and she raised her paw between of her and the light streams to protect her eyes.

And then, after her eyes get used to the bright daylight, Judy opened her eyes.

She felt of course a bit dizzy, as everything she was able to see, she saw as fuzzy.

But when her eyes seemed to get a bit more clearer, even though not quite completely and her eyes seemed to open and shut by themselves, Judy turned her head to the right and to the left to see that where she was.

She seemed to be in some strange area of the fresh coniferous forest terrain, where the high red-brown and green conifers were growing all around of her in the fresh colors of the daylight.

Right next to also seemed to flow slowly and calmly flowing small river creek and a small distance away there was a small waterfall, whose flowing and falling waters humming was able to be heard even from this distance.

The morning air was fresh and the morning itself beautiful even and and she heard the birdsong in the air...

...Judy even saw the great bald eagle resting in the branch of the coniferous tree, staring down at her with its big eyes. However, the eagle did not stayed in place long and it immediately took flight and disappeared from sight...

...but as soon as she woke up, the various questions came like the hammering wave in her mind about the strange events last night.

Where she was at the moment?

How did she ended here?

What happened to her in the last night?

And first and foremost of all, what was all of that in the last night back in the peak of that mountain?

Judy groaned in pain for a couple times.

Her head was hammered by the fiery headache and sore bruises, as if she had hit her head hard into something, although she did not remember that to what she had hit her head.

Plus, her limbs felt stiff and that's why sore, causing the light pain as she tried to move her limbs.

Then, suddenly, she felt something wet and liquid on her forehead.

It could not be rain, because the morning sky was clear and bright and there was no any sign of dark rain clouds in the sky.

And then, she felt again something wet was carefully placed on her forehead, which appeared to be a wet piece of fabric.

Because Judy did not remember to put that wet piece of fabric on her forehead by herself, she did not even know that where it came from, Judy realized that wherever she was...

...She wasn't alone. There was someone else with her.

And then, out of nowhere and completely unexpectedly...

"So, Judith, my dear. Have you decided to join back the living again?" Heard the very familiar voice to speaking with the motherly, plus with humorously asking, tone.

"Ooh-ho-ho. That's quite a bump you've got, my dear child." The figure chuckled.

Urged by the hearing of that very familiar voice, Judy slowly opened her eyes again and, much to her surprise, she saw the very familiar figure of the grey-furred rabbit doe with the familiar purple eyes and white polar bear fur.

The figure brought from the river the another wet piece of fabric after squeezing excess water from it and replaced it with the old one on Judy's forehead.

"That must have been one heck of a ride down the rapids, but that's what you get if you raft that kind of rapids without canoe." The figure said and returned back to the river.

"Mother?" Judy whispered with the confused tone, after seeing now more clearly and spotted her mother, Bonnie Hopps, with her.

Hod did her mother managed to find her in middle of nowhere?

Slowly and groaning in pain, Judy sat up, straightened her sore limbs and rubbing her bruised head.

Then, her eyes opened to wide...

She had something very unbelievable to tell to her mother.

"M-m-mother, Y-y-you won't never believe this but I saw a very weird dream. I was at the top of the small mountain, and all of a sudden..."

When Judy tried to explain the last night events to her mother, but she was so confused and amazed about the last night's events that she explained everything too quickly and hastily that Bonnie did not understand a syllable of what she was saying.

In addition, the weird canine-like snarls, growls and barks which escaped out of her daughter's mouth while explaining, made her explanations even a more complicated in Bonnie's ears.

"Judy, honey. Shh-shh-shh." Bonnie said gently as she placed her paw on Judy's lips to silent her.

"Calm down, Judy. And, if you please, don't speak... or should I say... snarl, growl or bark so loud. Unless you want to everybody nearby to hear us and start to wonder that what the such of old and defenseless-looking rabbit doe like me is doing this close to the fox." Bonnie said.

The word "this close to the fox" confused Judy greatly.

"What are you talking about, mother? What do you mean with "this close to the fox?" There's not any foxes even nearby." Judy said with the confused tone.

"Are you that sure, Judy dear?" Bonnie asked, again with the gentle but humorous tone, making her daughter even more confused that about what her mother was speaking of.

"You seems to be thirsty. I'm sorry Judy but I did not remember to take a waterskin with me. It seems that you have to take the drink from the river. And don't worry. It is clean and fresh." Bonnie urged her daughter.

Judy only shrugged her shoulders and slowly stood up.

In fact, Judy found out that her mother got the point with that one, that she indeed was thirsty. She did not know neither remember that to where she left her own waterskin while hunting down the fox the last night.

Judy walked to the beach of the river and was about to pour some water to her to bowl formed paws to drink...

...until she saw her own reflection in the water surface.

Judy saw from it the gray-furred and purple-eyed fox-like canine in her reflection, instead of her normal bunny form.

She looked at her paws and noticed that there was a dark-grayed canine-like limbs with the long claws instead of bunny paws.

Judy gasped in shock and jumped upright.

Then he began to examine her bare but more fluffy body and much to her shock and horror...

Judy noticed that she was much larger by the size from the normal bunny size.

Judy started to palpate her head and face with her oddly long-clawed paws and noticed that she had the canine-like pointed ears and a long canine snout instead of her long bunny ears and small bunny snout... with the canine-like fangs in his mouth.

Judy also noticed that she had a long canine-like lower limbs instead of her bunny-like lower limbs.

"No. No, no, no, no! No! What has happened to me?! What is this?! Am I...?! Am I...?!" Judy panicked as she wobbled and jumped around and ripped the hair out of her fur and checked in panic the every last part of this a strange, horrible and inexplicable metamorphosis in her body.

Including...

"AM I...?!" Judy shouted in panic, as she turned her head to watch over her shoulder and, much to her horror, she realized that in the place of her bunny tail was instead a long and furry fox tail.

 **" _FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOX!_ "**

Judy's cry of desperation and horror echoed in the air over a large area that it startled dozens of birds in every tree inside of her cry's range, making them to take the flight, and catching the attention of every animal inside of the range.

"All right! All right! Aaaa-a-a-a! All right! Would you settle down? Settle down!" Bonnie said trying to calm down her daughter.

However, such of surprise like this had came to Judy as a big surprise and as deep shock and horror, that her ears had gone deaf to anything else in the nearby or in the presence, including her mother's attempts to calm her down.

Judy only rushed loudly growling and barking hither and thither, that she once even lost her balance and fell on her nose to the ground, but kept going by crawling in the ground and pushing herself forward with her lower limbs.

In deep panic and disbelief that SHE was totally physically fox, Judy desperately hoped that this was all just a bad dream and that she would soon wake up from it. She tried to "awaken" herself by tweaking herself and slap herself into her faces, whack her head to the tree or jumping to the river, hoping that the cold water would wake her up in the seconds.

However, much to her agony, nothing did happen, no matter how many times she slapped herself in the face and tweaked (even clawed) herself.

"Judy! Judy... Judy, listed to me! Judy! Judy!" Bonnie called her daughter's name various to get her attention so that she would be able to calm her panicking daughter down before she would hurt herself in any way.

However, her calls fell to the panicked bunny's deaf fox ears.

"Ugh! This isn't going to work." Bonnie sighed in frustration after realizing that getting her panicking daughter's attention, so that she could calm her down, wasn't working by the words.

Even though Bonnie deeply hated such of idea, she dug from a fabric sack she was carrying with her the large turnip and raised it above of her head.

Judy wasn't aware of what her mother was about to do. She only continued rushing in panic all around and loudly growling and barking/lamenting in agony of such of fate of hers.

"MOTHER, PLEASE! WAKE ME UP FROM THIS NIGHTMARE!" Judy loudly pleaded/growled in panic, until she felt something hard to hit her in the right side of her head, knocking her to the ground and ending her panicking around... plus silencing her.

"Judy! Judy, calm down and listen to me, my daughter. This may look strange, which I'll give you that too, but this is not the dream, this is a real." Bonnie said calmly as she quickly hurried to her daughter's side before she starts to panic again.

"And besides everything, it was your father who did this." Bonnie added as she briefly pointed with her finger at the sky. Judy followed her mother's finger looking up to the sky and then she lowered her head down to look at her mother.

This knowledge "her father did this" drew Judy to confusion.

She remembered having seen her father, or more likely the Spiritual figure of her father, coming to her from the _Northern Lights_ back in the peak of the mountain, and that her father had suddenly took her in the form of spiritual eagle in middle of the lights and then she had saw the bright light wrapping itself around of her... that was all she clearly remembered, nothing else.

"My father? But... but... w-why?" Judy asked with the whispering tone in confusion.

However, Bonnie had no idea why.

"That's a very good question, my dear." Bonnie answered apologetically to her daughter.

However, Judy's new form as the fox, who had still her rabbit daughter Judy's eyes and fur-color despite such of change, began to quite a lot interest her.

As Judy was about to ask from her mother that how did she in the world found her in the middle of nowhere, Bonnie started to circle around of her daughter's fox form examining her.

"Hmm, this is strange. Spirits don't usually make these kind of changes." Bonnie said.

Suddenly, she grabbed from Judy's canine jaws and opened them to see her daughters canine fangs a bit closer.

"Oh! Oh, my, my, my, my. I sense that your father must have something really big planned for you Judy. Yep, yep, yep." Bonnie said as she released Judy's jaws and then she started to examine Judy's canine arms, paws and claws.

"In fact, I knew that you were gonna get something as a payback from the Spirits... and I was expecting something the way of worse. No offense, of course, my dear, but I actually never believed it coming in this way." Bonnie said.

"But instead, you are going to get a whole new perspective on things." Bonnie added, to Judy's confusion and made her to ask from herself in her mind that what her mother was talking about.

Suddenly, Bonnie grabbed from Judy's face and pulled with her fingers the skin, flesh and fur aside around of Judy's right eye.

"Oh! And because the canines are usually the color blind, tell me Judy, do you see everything in black and white or in colors?" Bonnie asked quite humorously.

As Bonnie let go of Judy's face, Judy rubbed with her fox paw the area around of her right eye and turned to her mother a bit annoyed look on her face.

"Mom, enough of this stupid examining! Let's just get back to the village." Judy said in annoyed.

However, Bonnie shook her head apologetically.

"I'm sorry, Judy, but from two of us only I am able to go back to our village, not you, not especially in that current form of yours. You know very well that what our people thinks about the foxes and they'll never believe that you're actually one of us but in the skin of our natural enemies. Who knows if one of them err to believe you as the fox too much that one would make even the canopy above of the doorway of his burrow from your furry fox skin? Is that what you want, my dear daughter?" Bonnie said with the warning tone.

"BUT MOM...!" Judy tried to protest, nearly threatening her mother like the fox does when it's cornered its prey (bunnies) in the corner with no escape.

"NO BUTS, young lady!" Bonnie said as she unexpectedly and lightly painfully pressed her finger against Judy's fox nose, causing Judy to yelp in pain and back off.

"You see Judith? Both me and your big sister tried to warn you about this, or something like this, but the certain stubborn daughter didn't paid any attention to reason told to her by her own family. And now look at yourself, and know that you got yourself into this mess." Bonnie said with the scolding tone at her daughter as Judy rubbed with her lightly sore nose with her fox paw.

"I have no power to change you back, but someone, who led me here to you after you washed ashore the last night, has that kind of power. So, Judy my dear, if you want to change back to bunny, take it up with your father's Spirit." Bonnie said as she waved with her paw gently to the sky.

Judy looked at the sky, not seeing any sight of her father neither the lights she saw the last night and she lowered her head and desperate look in her face down and looked at her mother.

"But how, mother? The _Lights_ appear only at nighttime and now it's the middle of day. Besides, He's the Spirit and I'm the mortal... and the fox." Judy lamented with the disgust turned desperate tone.

Bonnie then referred her to follow her paw, as she knelt down to the ground and drew with her fingers a picture of the ground the three-pointed Mountain on top of which was two slithering lines like _Northern Lights_. The last time when Judy had seen the such of pic was during of her ceremony back in the cave near of her village.

"You'll find him on the three-pointed Mountain, where the _Lights_ touch the earth." Bonnie said as she stoop upright after drawing the pic to the ground.

"He'll help you make up for what you've done wrong." She added, which draw Judy to confusion again.

What her mother was talking about with that "done wrong?"

"But... I-I-I didn't do anything wrong." Judy tried to protest as lightly shook her head as disagreement and she raised her head to look at her mother.

Only to find the place where her mother was standing the second ago.

Confused about this, Judy hastily looked around of her trying to find her mother with her eyes.

However, Bonnie was completely disappeared from the scene... inexplicably and unexpectedly.

"Mother? Mother! Mother, wait! Mother! I-I didn't do anything wrong!" Judy yelled in the air, hoping that her mother would still hear her.

However, there was not response to be heard.

Judy sighed in defeat.

She realized that she was now on her own in middle of the wilderness... and with her was only the knowledge about the place where she would change back into the bunny she was still yesterday.

But the real question was... where it was?

Judy sighed again in frustration.

"She should have tell me that from where I can find that mountain... at least even advise that how to get there." She said to herself.

Suddenly, she heard some voices behind of the nearby rock. Something which sounded like there was fierce argument going on.

"What happened to them?" Asked the first voice from someone else, with quite annoyed and demanding tone.

"I don't know." Said another voice, more likely mumbling that Judy did not get clear from the speaker's words... as though the speaker had something in his mouth.

"But they were right here. How they could have to disappear just like that?" The first voice said again.

"Yeah, that's pretty weird." Mumbled the another voice again.

"But I left them under of your guard and I was gone only for ten minutes... and now they're gone. So, you gotta know what happened to them." the first voice said.

"I already told you, I've not idea where they went. They were right under of my watching eye but after I turned my back, they weren't here." Mumbled another voice yet again.

Judy walked to the rock the behind of which the voices came from and carefully peeked to behind of the boulder to see what was going on there.

Judy noticed two red-brown furred chipmunks, one of which is quite a bulging cheeks, squabbling with each others right next to the rock, unaware of the fact that Judy was at the moment looking down at them.

"So you're telling me you didn't eat them and you have no idea WHERE THEY ARE?!" One of them asked from the another one greatly frustrated.

"Uh-uh." Was the mumbling chipmunk's only answer to that.

Then, Judy opened her mouth to ask some guidance from the chipmunks for her upcoming journey to the three-pointed mountain.

"Uh, excuse me, guys." Judy said, catching the chipmunks attention to herself.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, but may I ask from you something?" Judy asked friendly.

However...

One of the chipmunks, the one who had spoke at first from two, took the expression of hate on his face and pointed at Judy with his finger accusingly... much to Judy's confusion and shock.

"Aha! We got the fox in here! I could swear that that sneaky and mean thief stole our acorns while I was gone and you turned your back to them!" Chipmunk said accusingly and scolding to his friend.

Judy stared at the chipmunks both confused and shocked.

"Where's our acorns, thief?! What have you done to them?!" The first chipmunk angrily demanded as he picked some tiny little rocks into his paw.

Such of loud demanding caused Judy to back off lightly, until she started to wonder in her mind about what the chipmunks were talking about.

Was that chipmunk accusing her for theft? Judy asked from herself in her mind.

Judy knew that to get forward in her case, she had to explain to chipmunks that she never knew about the presence of the chipmunks and she has not stole nothing from them because she found herself from lying here unconscious for almost half an hour ago.

"I think that you've misunderstood, but..." Judy tried to explain, until something hard hit her into her nose, causing her to let out the light yelp and turn away from the chipmunks.

"Tell us what have you done to our acorns, you filthy thief!" The chipmunk demanded more angrily and threw another small rock at Judy.

The rock hit her in the forehead as Judy turned back to the duo.

"Hey! OUCH! Please, stop! OUCH! I don't even-OUH! Even know what you-OUCH! You're talking about. I didn't-OUH! Stole anything-OUCH! From you two. I'm only-UH! I'm only asking-OUCH! Asking from you-OUCH! A direction-OUCH! To the three-OUCH! Three-pointed Mount-OUCH-tain!" Judy tried to explain between of the painful hits from the rocks thrown by the chipmunk.

Another chipmunk with the wide ball-like cheeks was lightly shaking in horror at the sight of the predator mammal over them, which was none else than the red fox... strangely with the gray fur for which she could be mistaken for a wolf.

The chipmunk even stepped slowly back after seeing Judy's bared canine-teeth for once as she bared them in pain due to hits from the rocks that his friend threw at her.

However, unlike his friend, noticed that all what Judy, even though he did not knew her name, wanted was just ask something from them.

He felt quite awkward and seemingly even a little strangely penitent, when none was watching towards him, at the sight of someone suffering from the false charges, particularly the one which he or they both were not seen in the presence of the entire morning.

So, in order to not cause the fox go in rage which would led it to eat them in high dudgeon, the chipmunk walked to next to his friend and tried to stop him from throwing the rocks at the gray fox. He managed to grab from his friends wrist before he managed to throw the next rock at the fox.

"C'mon, buddy. Knock it off. That fox probably does not have anything to do with this. Maybe she just ran into us by accident. Moreover, it appears that she may have something to ask from us. Let's hear what she wants so she leaves and leaves us alone." The chipmunk mumbled.

However, the chipmunk pulled his wrist out of his friend's grab.

"Are you saying that that fox is an innocent?! No way! He stole our acorns! That's what the foxes are! All of them! They're sneaky, they're cunning, they're selfish, they're dishonest, they're liars, they're untrustworthy ones, they're savages, dumb predators. I mean, they're..." Chipmunk listed as he threw the last rock at Judy.

It nearly hit straight to Judy's right eye, making her yelp loudly in pain.

"OUCH! HEY, YOU DAMNED RODDENT!" Judy barked with the loud, annoyed and venomous tone as the hardened and an agry look appeared on her face.

Judy even bared her canine-teeth at the chipmunks as she growled at them in annoyance and staring them her purple eyes in the venomous look.

Both chipmunks startled in horror to Judy's canine-like bark, growling and teeth and jumped backwards, before they began to back away... reeeeaally slowly, step by step, staring the fox in horror and stretching out their paws forward as a sign "Please, don't!"

"O-okay... m-m-maybe that was a b-bit... t-t-too m-much. So... w-what if... we j-j-just... l-l-leave f-from here." The chipmunk whispered in horror.

Judy's expression on her face softened immediately as she realized that what these poor chipmunks were afraid... they were afraid of her, or at least her form of fox.

"W-what? Huh? No. N-n-no, no, no, no! W-Wait, wait! Guys, wait! Please, I-I just wanted to ask from you one thing, please, wait!" Judy pleaded desperately, causing her to step hastily forward towards the chipmunks and bare her teeth more in the desperation.

This was too much for another chipmunk. The sudden shock and horror caused him eventually to spit two Judy's rabbit form's fist-sized and slimy acorns, which had to be the certain acorns his friend was looking for, out of his mouth, which both of them hit his friends head.

The sudden shock and horror filled his friend as well and both chipmunks suddenly let out the scream in horror and fled from the scene.

"Liar! I knew you had them!" One of them yelled to another as they disappeared from Judy's sight into the woods... much to Judy's desperation.

Plus, to her annoyance, because that chipmunk did not bother to apologize his offensive words - the same offensive words about the foxes which she remembered ironically having said herself, when she openly explained her thoughts about the foxes to her father after she received her totem from her mother back in her home village a long before this entire mess - and his false believe her as the thief.

Judy did not bother to go after them, because she knew that the chipmunks would never even bother to listen to what she had to ask from them.

"Are we there yet?" Suddenly asked the teen-like voice with the deeply bored and impatient tone from high above of her... and the trees.

Judy raised her head to the direction of the source of the voice and spotted the goose flock flying in the sky in the formation... right above of her.

"This is my very last warning to you, young lady. Don't make me turn this formation around!" Said back the father-like voice with the very annoyed and impatient tone.

Because these were gooses, and ability to fly in the air and the long distances, Judy started to jump around and wave her paws to get the departing gooses attention, so she could ask from them the direction to the tree-pointed mountain.

"HEY! HEY! HEY! HEY! WAIT! COME BACK! I NEED TO ASK FROM YOU SOMETHING! COME BACK! PLEASE!" Judy pleaded as she waved her paws hastily.

The flock was, much to her great and deep desperation, getting far away from her... too far away for them to spot the gray-furred fox in the woods who needed so badly their help and waved her paws in the air to get their attention, until...

however, One of the gooses suddenly turned around and flied towards her... much to Judy's relief.

As the goose, female goose, finally reached to her... she, however, remained in the air out of her reach, floating and circling her in the air instead of coming completely down.

"I heard you calling for us. What do you want, fox?" The goose asked while she was floating in the air above of Judy.

Judy sighed deeply in relief.

"Praise be! Uh... yes. I have a small distress. You would not happen to know that where..."

As Judy was about to ask what she wanted to ask from the goose, she suddenly felt her neck starting a little bit ache.

It certainly was due to the fact that Judy had looked up at the sky after the flock of geese a bit too long so that her neck began to ache. And the aches got slightly worse as she rolled hear head in the circle as she followed the goose's floating in the circle above of her with her eyes.

She even felt herself a bit dizzy after following the goose with her eyes.

The goose herself noticed this as well... and maybe it was her intention or something.

As Judy lowered her head carefully down, her neck felt even more rigid and aches were even more painful. Judy moaned loudly in the light pain as she rubbed her aching neck with her clawed canine-paw.

"Uh... can you come down here, so... UH... so we can talk... OW... personally in the same... OUCH...evel with each others. OW! Please, my neck... UH... aches. UH. OUCH. Can you stop... OW... stop flying the circle... OUCH... over me like that and come down to... OW... speak with me personally? Judy asked while moaning in pain and rubbing her neck between of her words and the waves of pain in her neck.

However, the goose did not lowered on the ground. She only kept floating and circling Judy in the air.

"And why I would do that. You're a fox and I'm a goose and foxes eat the geese." The goose asked, apparently hesitating the idea of landing to the ground with the fox, because the geese and the foxes were natural enemies... as well as were the bunnies and the foxes.

Judy sighed in frustration, but she knew that the goose was right... and for reason because of her being stuck in the fur of the fox.

"Hey, there's... UH... nothing need to be worry about... OW. I may look... OUCH... like a fox but I'm not... OW... I'm not gonna... AH... not gonna harm you... OUCH... in any way." Judy said, struggling with her annoying neck aches.

However, despite Judy's sweet, polite and kind tone of voice, the goose was still greatly hesitant to land on the ground with the fox.

Because of this, Judy started to wonder that was this goose lost sometime ago someone very close to her to the teeth of the fox and was due to that loss very wary with the foxes like most of the mammals.

"How do I know that you do not attack me, snap off my neck and eat me very soon if I land to the ground? How do I know if that what you call "neck aches" and speaking so kindly with the silver tongue aren't just a trick to get me to feel pity for you and come down as the easy prey for you?" The goose asked with clearly apparent mistrust.

Judy was slowly losing her patience but hardly struggled to keep her cool. She knew that if she wanted some necessary information what she wanted, she had to convince the goose that there was no reason to be afraid of her in order to gain the goose's trust and get her to open to her.

"Look, I'm just needing your help, that's all what I want. I don't want to bring any harm on anybody. I don't even eat meat despite the fact I may look the fox and the canine predator. I know that you may see me as disgusting, cunning and untrustworthy fox as many others do, but I'm not asking for your trust. I just need some information that are very important to me. If you only would help an animal in distress, even the fox, I don't bother you any more after that. Let me just ask from you something and whatever your answer is, I promise that I'll let you go in peace. Please... please... please..." Judy pleaded and began to beg on her knees for help from the goose like the poor and the wretched beggar and trying at the same time to look a pitiful fox puppy, even though

After hearing Judy, the goose seemed to be struggling with herself emotionally... between of feeling pity for the pitiful rox like Judy's fox-form and being wary of her because she was the fox. She had also a touch of the urge to turning her back at the fox, turn around and take off, leaving the pitiful "but possibly dishonest and opportunity-to-attack waiting" fox behind with her "possible fake" despair.

However, Goose was seemingly giving up to her feeling pity for Judy and, with the reluctant snort, reluctantly began to lower the high between of her and the ground, much to Judy's relief after she realized that what the goose was doing.

The wide smile appeared to Judy's lips as she followed with her eyes the goose's landing on the top of the rock.

"Alright, I will listen to you and help you if I can, fox. But you must promise me that you stay an over five meters away from me that you cannot gain any opportunity to break your word and attack me undetected after we've done with this. Deal?" Goose demanded.

Without hesitation or objection, Judy immediately swore to do as the goose demanded with the smile on her face and the spark of hope in her heart.

To get to go one step forward on her path towards of being bunny again, there was no power in the world that could not get Judy to break her promise, because then she would lose her opportunity to get the information she needed so badly to find that mountain.

"Alright, and keep your word then." Goose reminded.

Even though the goose had granted to Judy the chance to ask from her something, she remained alert and ready to take flight if the things do not go as she and Judy had agreed.

"Well, then, What did you exactly wanted to ask me at all?"

Judy's smile widened even more, thanks to the long fox snout, that she immediately stretched her paws forward and opened her mouth to explain her problem from the beginning to the end before her the main question.

However, before she managed to get a single word out of her mouth...

"CHARGE!"

All of a sudden, Judy felt a strong and heavy strike unexpectedly hitting her in the right side of her head. The strike was strong and heavy enough to toss Judy roughly to the ground.

This surprised badly both of her and the goose.

Suddenly, before Judy had a time to recover from the sudden attack, Judy felt another similar heavy strike against her left flank, which tossed her roughly aside and caused her roughly collide against the large trunk of tree.

Judy fell down from the trunk and landed roughly against the rock.

Judy tried to slowly get back on her feet, during of which she gritted her canine teeth in pain and rubbed her stomach with her right paw due to fact that her stomach had took the rough impact against the rock and caused to her such of pain and feeling which almost made her to vomit.

Then, she felt again the hard strike which hit her under of her lower canine jaw. The impact hauled her roughly upright on her feet and nearly caused her to fall off the top of rock. But before she could, she felt yet again the hard impact to her already sore stomach, which tossed her off the rock to the pile of tons and tons of mud near the river.

There was heard the big SPLATS as Judy roughly landed to the mud.

And after the splat, it was followed by the mean and mocking laughter from someone... or rather, someones from the near.

Covered by a thick layer of the wet and slightly sticky mud, gritting her teeth in pain Judy stood up on her all fours and shook as much mud off her as she was able to and nearly let out the angry growl and loud angry bark at anyone who had attacked her and was now laughing at her like that. But instead of wondering that who had attacked her and considering to fight back, Judy tried to wipe the mud, which was running down her faces bothering her eyes, off from her head and face to see better.

She was now both blind and unable to defend herself.

"Hey! Stop! Enough!" Judy heard the same goose shouting to her attackers, trying to beg them to stop this unnecessary beating.

However, it apparently felt to the deaf ears.

Judy then felt another strike impacting to her stomach... yet again... sending her roughly into the air and causing her to splats into the tributary.

The cold river water helped Judy to wipe off the rest of the mud off from her fox fur, but it did not helped to her severe and three times increased pain in the stomach, forcing Judy to fall down on her kneels holding with her paws her aching stomach and gritting her teeth due to strong waves of pain, which caused her to feel dizzy and nearly caused her to vomit to the river.

After the last mud were wiped off from Judy's face and she was able to see again, she noticed the entire flock of geese, the same flock she saw in the sky and to which the first goose belonged, standing on the top of the rock before of her. The largest one of them, the leader and possibly the teen goose's father, was standing in front of the flock and surrounded from behind by the five a slightly smaller male geese, probably his teen children, who were all starring at Judy with either angry, disgusted or maliciously grinning look on their faces... telling to Judy that it was them who a moment ago had attacked her like that.

Only their father was apparently purely furious... only because he was probably filled overly full with the misunderstanding about the situation he saw between of Judy's gray-furred fox form and her own daughter, whom he had probably noticed of missing from the flock.

On top of that, his misunderstanding about the situation was seemingly breed by his apparently overprotective towards his daughter... plus... the strong prejudice against the predators... especially the goose-eating predators like the foxes.

"Let that be the life lesson to you what happens if you ever again try to wrap your filthy fingers around of my daughter's neck, you... you... you-you-you filthy flea-coat savage!" The goose father said highly harshly and with the emotionally stabbing venom in the voice.

"Get out of here to snap your filthy teeth around of mammoths tails. Hopefully you got trampled under of their feet if you managed to cause the stampede." The goose father added as he and his sons, still mocking Judy, turned around and prepared to take off.

It was then when his daughter flied on the scene and gasped after seeing how her own family had treated Judy. She didn't in fact loved the foxes, but seeing wet and bruised Judy struggling under the pain and all those emotionally hurting mocks his brothers shot out from their beaks upon of Judy, after she had treated her and spoke to her so politely and kindly and even promised to not hurt her in any way despite being the fox, made her to feel greatly pity for the poor thing and it caused her to turn to her father.

"Father, that was cruel and unnecessary towards that poor thing. That fox only wanted to ask me for some help in her problem and she had no intention to harm me in any way. She even gave me her word to stay over five meters away from me. There's no way she could have wrap her fingers around my neck due of me being far away from her reach. She did not seem to have even the intent to hurt me. She even seemed to be the honest, friendly and no-harm-meaning despite her species. You would have given her even a chance." The goose exclaimed with the scolding tone to her father.

However, her father was immediately disagree with his daughter's claims.

"My dear, There's no way we should trust to that beast, which is on top of all the goose-eater. What if her "problem" was just a fake? What if she really intended to break her "word not to harm you in any way" treacherously very soon as you turn your back to her? Plus, the foxes are not just cunning but also fast. You have still the problems with the perfect take off, my dear. What if she really intend to run you down and wrap her filthy fingers... or worse, her teeth... around of your neck into the deadly squeeze? Besides, what if you would have happened the very same accident that happened to your cousin, and why, because he trusted too much to one of those filthy sneaky goose-eaters and which cost him his and his family's life? Tell me that." The goose father fired back.

Hearing that, both Judy and the goose daughter found themselves dumbfounded.

Goose daughter was immediately unable to protest about the apparent difference on Judy's fox form, but Judy found herself internally shocked after hearing that that goose's cousins along with his or hers family had paid a high price with their lives for trusting to the foxes too much.

"Besides, that's what the foxes are, my dear. All of them. They're sneaky, cunning, selfish, dishonest, liars, untrustworthy ones, thieves, savages and dumb goose-eathers. It's in their nature, and they do not change in any way." The goose father added and refused to listed her daughter's objections about the reality of the recent situation.

Hearing what that goose father had just said about the foxes, including herself in this hideous form of fox, Judy lowered her fox-ears and her head down and sighed in the frustration and slightly in thee sadness, because she knew that that goose father meant with all foxes her as well at the moment. Judy also remembered that she had said herself all those things what the others think about the foxes back in the Bunnyburrow village before this entire mess.

"Take off, kids. We're out of here." The goose father said to his children before he took off.

The goose children shout out from their beaks the last mocking words and their spits with a contemptuous look on their faces upon Judy before they took off one by one after their father.

Only the goose girl stayed behind for a short time looking at Judy, as she slowly and mentally half-broken crawled her way back to the riverside.

The goose felt pity for Judy's fox form and felt the urge to help her, but she was forced to take off after she heard her father calling her.

"I'm sorry, foxy. I really am." The goose girl said with the sympathy and bitter for herself before shortly after that she took off after her family.

As Judy saw the goose girl taking off and nearly disappearing into the branches, and into the sky, the huge wave of desperation took her over, causing her to jump from the water and rush desperately after the departing goose, ignoring the all pain in her stomach.

"NO! NO-NO-NO! DON'T GO! WAIT! PLEASE! PLEASE, WAIT! COME BACK! PLEASE, COME BACK! DON'T LEAVE! YOU MUST HELP ME! PLEASE! PLEASE, HELP ME!" Judy yelled after the geese, pleading for their help, but the geese were already disappeared.

Eventually, Judy gave up from pointlessly chasing the geese and leaned in the deep desperation against the nearby tree. She was so much filled with the despair that she almost burst into tears.

"Please, I'm trying to find the tree-pointed Mountain where the _Lights_..." Judy said with the desperation and sobbing filled tone.

Suddenly, Judy snapped from her desperation and sobbing after she heard a new voices speaking from somewhere near.

Even though she was the fox, her the sensitive sense of hearing was still with her, and following up the voices for a small distance, she eventually found the source of the voices.

There was a couple of moose standing a small distance away from her next to, nearly beneath of the large fallen tree... and both of them were looking at her with the mocking-looking expressions on their faces and with the mocking-sounding chuckle.

'Moose. Why it had to be moose?' Judy asked from herself in her mind.

 **To be continue...**

 **I hope you enjoyed of reading this chapter.**

 **I hoped that you prepared to feel sorry for Judy in her fox form, now when she gets painfully to know how the other animals react to the foxes in the fox's perspective.**


	8. Chapter 8: Judy meets Pronk and Bucky

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 8: JUDY MEETS PRONK AND BUCKY  
**

 **ENJOY THE READING**

Of all the animals, with the exception of foxes, Judy hated most the moose... because they never behaved more adult-like and seriously except in the particularly serious situations like being stalked and hunted down by their natural predators... wolves. Otherwise they liked more of their relaxed, carefree and lazy lifestyle to do whatever they wanted, and ... the most annoying thing in them ... make the jokes and make fun at the expense of others.

"Hey, bro. Look at that wolf out there. What's she getting worked up about?" Said one of the moose, who had the dark red-brown-colored fur.

"Oh, gee. I don't know bro. Maybe it's because those geese just pooped on her, eh?" Another moose, who had the light golden-brown-colored fur, joked.

Both of moose chuckled heartily at this.

Judy wasn't amused of this, and her mood lowered even more when she found the fresh poop of geese over her head, which Judy wiped off frustrated.

One of the moose, red-brown one, suddenly raised his head up and looked at Judy's direction... and then, his head jumped up, the expression of the light horror on his face.

"Oh, gee. I think she's looking over here." The red-brown moose whispered, sounding like he was quite uncertain but apparently anticipating that's what certainly was gonna happen next

"Uh, oh! If it realizes we just made fun of her, it's gonna tear us off from our bones and then chew our bones!" gulped another the golden-brown one.

"Quick! Let's beat it. This way." Red-brown moose said in the light and hidden panic and was about to run hastily into the woods.

"No, no, no, no! This way. This way!" Said golden-brown moose as he was as well about to run hastily to the opposite direction.

The duo of moose then then realized that they were both running headlong into a different directions from each other, so both of moose turned around to run after the other. But both of them seemed to be unaware of the fact that they both turned at the same time to run the direction to which one of them was about to run a second ago.

And after hastily turning around, both of them scampered forward, but neither of them realized that they were running headlong to each other, ... and finally, both of them collided with each other. As a result, their antlers became entangled together. Being stuck by the each other's antlers and in the bowing position brought them difficulties to stand upright and much less to run away from here.

"Oh, great! Now we're stuck!" Complained the golden-brown moose.

"Thank you very much for getting both of us into this mess." Red-brown moose said with the a bit bitter and blaming tone.

"Me?! You got us into this mess in the first place!" Golden-brown moose complained offended again as he tried to shake his head from side to side to get his antlers off from the another moose's antlers.

"Shut up and just stay still that we can..." Red-brown moose muttered.

Both of them found it difficult to even try get off from each others antlers. Shaking their heads to get loose didn't helped, because their antlers and the movements of their own heads were on their way. Instead, the shaking their heads only worsened the situation and made them both feel the pain in their heads. They even tried to pull themselves off from each others, but stopped it immediately after they found it to be too painful.

Judy rolled her eyes at the duo of moose hasty clumsiness, which got both of them into the mess where they just were at the moment.

'Whatta pea-brains." Judy muttered

However, after being rejected and hammered by both the chipmunks and geese, Judy had no another choice but to ask the duo of moose for help... even though their fellow species weren't in any way helpful for her when she was tracking and hunting down the certain fox yesterday.

So, Judy moved forward towards the duo in order to help them out of their problem, so she would be able to ask them for help.

"Hey, you two!" She called for them.

One of the duo, to his horror, spotted Judy coming straight towards them.

"Uh, oh! Wolf's coming! Head down, head down!" The red-brown moose said and pulled his own head down and in the hollow tree trunk, at the same time pulling his brother's head down as well, nut much more roughly and painfully. Only their moose butts and moose tails were still on seen

"OUCH! Carefully, bro!" The moose complained after such of rough pull down.

"Quiet!" The red-brown moose sternly warned.

Judy let out the deep sigh in annoyance and rolled her eyes. She was totally ashamed on behalf of moose and their primitive hiding technique, even though the moose were supposed to run for their lives from the predators and not hide from them in under the hollow tree trunks like the smaller animals do.

"Amateurs. It's like the big mammoth, who believes itself as an opossum, trying to hide behind of small pushes and narrow trees from the predator birds in the open. A lone rabbit is much more able to hide him/herself to anywhere much better from the predator mammals." Judy sighed.

"WE HEARD THAT!" One of the moose shouted from their hiding spot with the offended.

"Quiet! Were hiding and the ones in the hide aren't supposed to reveal themselves. Didn't our mother taught to you anything, bro?" One of the moose hissed.

"What's the point of hiding?! This isn't the common with the moose, Bro. Besides, I think she has already saw us! Now what?" The moose asked by whispering from his brother with the hasty tone and with the barely controlled panic, completely pessimistic of such of strategy of hiding from the predators.

"How were supposed to run with our antlers stuck with each others, fur-brain?! Just ignore her presence! Think that she's not hungry and lusted for the moose flesh! Act like we're not here! Anything what may get her to lose her interest for us and goes away leaving us alone, you got it?" Red-brown moose advised to his brother.

"Okay, okay. Uh... WE'RE NOT HERE! LEAVE US ALONE, WILL YA?" Golden-brown moose yelled loudly for Judy to hear it from under of the tree trunk.

"Shh! What are you doing?" Red-brown moose hissed in annoyance and frustration to his windbag brother and kicked him to his leg.

"But you said to..." the golden-brown moose whispered as he gritted his teeth out of the pain in his lower limb.

"Don't say anything. Shh!" The red-brown furred moose hissed.

"Okay, okay, okay. I'll be as quiet as the rock." The golden-brown moose whispered, quite loudly yet again, causing his brother to grit his teeth in annoyance that his brother failed yet again of listening to him.

"I said, "Don't say anything." The moose hissed.

As they argued under of the hollow tree trunk, with the eyes closed from both of them, they failed to realize that Judy had peeked under the tree trunk and pushed her canine-head inside of the tree trunk... right front of the moose's noses.

"Um, excuse me, guys, but may I..." Judy said, trying to get their attention from this needless hiding to her so she would be able to ask from them something.

Both of the moose opened their eyes looking at forward the one who had just talked to them so politely and friendly.

However, after seeing Judy in front of their noses...

"WOOOOLF!"

...both of the moose, loudly screamed like the little girls as they saw Judy's gray-furred canine head right in front of them. Such of shock got the duo to hastily hit their heads into the ceiling of the tree trunk, even breaking through of it with the doubled strength by the sudden shock in horror and their own natural moose strength. After that, the moose with an unbalanced way, due to their antlers still stuck with each others, jumped hastily and in panic backwards trying to crawl far away from Judy.

Judy crawled out of the trunk and looked at the moose.

"Please, wolfie! Don't eat us." The red-brown moose pleaded in panic.

"You won't like us, eh? Trust me, We tastes awful!" The golden-brown moose pleaded.

"Yeah. Or more likely, I taste awful. Go to eat that fat and juicy hoof-for-brains over there." The red-brown moose said pointing at his brother with his head.

His golden-brown furred brother wasn't pleased, more likely highly offended, of that what his brother had just said about him, about his own brother, and directed a bitter glare on his brother.

"Oh, so that's what my so-called selfless beloved brother thinks of me, you selfish antler-brain?"

The red-brown moose didn't take that kind of insult lightly, so he glared back at his brother and prepared to return fire with the insults.

"Who you call "selfish antler-brain?" You're not either always so selfless, you pea-brained windbag."

"Who you call "pea-brained windbag," you big lubber?!"

Soon, the bulls were launching out from their mouths the several offending insults against each others while pushing with their heads and stuck antlers each others back with the every launched insult.

"Humpbacked camel!"

"Bowlegged deer!"

"Brainless llama!"

"You're one to talk, you lard butt boar with the overgrown tusks on your head!"

"Big-nosed ruminant!"

The golden-brown moose suddenly gasped in shock and hurt of such of insult about his nose.

After that, they both immediately stopped their argument with each others. The brown-red moose took deeply apologizing expression on his face, realizing that he had crossed the line of his brother's mental resilience, as his golden-brown brother took the deeply offended expression on his face.

"Sorry. Didn't meant to..." The red-brown moose whispered as he humbly backed away from his brother as far as he was able due to his stuck antlers, ashamed of hurting his brother's feelings with the such of insult without even thinking about it.

"You went too far with that one, you know that?" The golden-brown moose whispered with the offended tone to his brother as he curled up into the offended position like the pitiful/begging dog.

"Okay, I'm sorry." The red-brown moose apologized yet again.

"Uh, guys." Judy said, deciding to interfere the moose's business or she'll never getting on with her case and need for some help.

"Yours is bigger than mine." The golden-brown moose said back to his brother, still deeply offended of his insult.

And then, he noticed Judy approaching them and stopping right next to them.

"THE BIG BAD WOLF'S UPON US!" The moose gasped in shock and horror.

"What we're gonna do?! What we're gonna do?! we're stuck with each other by the horns and we are as though on a tray for that savage carnivore! It's gonna bite to our necks with those sharp fangs, to choke us into our own blood or break our spines. Then it's gonna tear every piece of flesh off from our bones with his sharp fangs and claws! WE'RE GONNA DIE AS THE FOOD OF THE WICKED PREDATOR!" The golden-brown moose sobbed in the deep panic as his hoofed fingers shook in the fear in his hands.

As Judy grabbed with her canine paws from their antlers, the moose shut their eyes close and prepared for to be mauled to dead in the fangs of the "wolf."

"It was nice to know you. Good-bye, bro! See ya in the heaven of the moose!" The red-brown moose sobbed.

Judy snorted at such of acting with the impatient disgust and frustration that she had to explain couple of points to these moose that such of unnecessary performance of theirs would be soon over.

"Guys, please, knock it off before you two get overly carried away. The show is over, clap, clap, clap." Judy said sarcastically to the moose brothers as she started carefully move the moose's antlers to get them off from each others.

"Besides, even though I have a gray fur, that doesn't mean that I'm wolf. I am not wolf and I'm not gonna eat anyone of you. Besides, I don't even eat meat." Judy said as she quickly but carefully released the moose's antlers from each others with her canine paws.

Both of moose sighed loudly and deeply in relief.

"Oh, whew. That's mighty decent of you, eh." The red-brown moose said with the smile of relief.

Both moose, who were a second ago nervous and tensed by horror, were finally able to relax after they realized that the canine mammal standing next to them was not a threat... or at least she did not seemed to be a threat.

However, the golden-brown moose was quite unsure of what the canine mammal was meaning by "She does not even eat meat."

"Wolf, who doesn't eat meat? What are you then of not a predator? A vegetarian wolf?"

"Who cares, dumbass? That's much better than even that to be a carnivore. And besides, you see how small she is? Too small to hurt anybody, so maybe she's just a lost wolf puppy." The red-brown moose said.

Then the golden-brown moose suddenly gasped again, but this time not due to the shock or horror.

"Oh, right! Where are our matters with the strangers?!" The moose shouted before he turned to Judy.

"Oh, hi there. Good morning and nice to meet ya. I apologize for our childish behavior, we are just not used to being this close of our natural predator, even the puppies. But allow me to introduce ourselves. My name's Pronk. This is my brother Bucky." Moose called with the name Pronk said as he nodded his head towards the red-brown moose, who was called with the name Bucky.

"So, how's it going, Wolfie?" Bucky asked politely.

Judy nearly placed her canine paw on her forehead and snorted in annoyance.

"Don't call me that." Judy said in dead serious.

This confused the mooses as they just tried to be polite and friendly.

"Sorry, uh... ... ... what about Miss. Wolfie?" Bucky asked politely, if he was able to call Judy with that.

"No, I mean, I already told you two, I'm not a wolf! I'm not even a canine mammal. Canine mammals are predators and I hate canines." Judy said with the serious and a bit with annoyance.

Bucky found himself dumbfounded and a lightly backed off confused. However, Pronk believed that Judy was just a humorously kidding with them by claiming that she's not what their own eyes sees and decided to play along, much to Judy's annoyance.

"Well, gee! Then you're one big raccoon dog." Pronk said before he burst into the hearty laugh to his joke, causing Judy to create the deeply annoyed expression on her canine faces.

"No kidding, eh? What about a long-legged badger with the pointed ears and a long fluffy tail?" Bucky guessed, before he too burst into the hearty laugh along his brother.

Even though these moose annoyingly made fun at the expense of her, Judy decided to keep her cool and finally asked if they can help even a little bit in her case. The sooner she would ask and obtain all the necessary information, location of the tree-pointed mountain and the direction to where she was supposed to go, the sooner she could get to continue her journey to the mountain and get rid of these dumb moose and their stupid jokes.

"Hey, can you guys help the mammal needing for help? Does either of you know the tree-pointed Mountain where the _Lights_ touch the earth?"

Both moose started immediately to rub their chin as they started to search such of knowledge from their minds about the "the tree-pointed Mountain where the _Lights_ touch the earth" and its location plus direction to get there. Pronk's eyes turned up, he rolled his head and he opened his mouth like he was gonna say something, which filled Judy with the hope that if the moose knew even something...

"Yee... ahh..."

However, much to Judy's disappointment...

"No. Uh, no. Sorry, but we have no any idea about of such of place, wolfie... Er, sorry, er, Mrs. raccoon dog, I meant." Pronk apologized as he shook his head with the negative answer. Bucky nodded to his brother, after which he turned to Judy and shook his head as well, having no knowledge about some kind of the tree-pointed Mountain where the lights touch the earth.

However, Judy snorted loudly in annoyance and frustration, but not because of not having from these moose the very important information she needed so badly at the moment, but mostly because of these moose mistaking her in the species once again.

"Hey, I already told you! I'm not a raccoon dog, I'm-I'm a fox... No, no, no, no, I mean, whatta heck?! I'm not a fox. What I was... ugh, damned! I-I was... ugh! I'm... I'm-I'm a RABBIT!" Judy said stuttering in her words in order to find the reasonable explanation to make it clear to these moose, much to her annoyance and frustration.

Both the moose burst into the loud chuckle after hearing this. They saw this as a fun joke that a wolf-like canine mammal standing in front of them first claimed herself to be the fox at first and then rabbit.

"Excuse me, say what?" Pronk lightly said as he chuckled which was nearly drowning his voice in laughter.

"I wasn't originally the fox but a rabbit from far away from here. I was transformed into a grey-furred fox. Magically, you got it? I was lifted into the sky at the peak of the mountain by the spirit of my father the last night." Judy explained as she at the same time mentally struggled hardly to keep herself in cool at the same time.

However, the explanation was ineffective to the moose brothers. They only keep chuckling at this claim.

"Come again." Bucky chuckled.

Judy snorted in annoyance.

'Unbelievable, how dumb the moose can seriously be?' Judy thought.

"Okay, fine. Listen to me and focus as I try to explain this to you shortly: I was a rabbit, that was transformed magically into the fox, NOT INTO THE RACCOON DOG! A rabbit, that was transformed into the fox by the Spirit of my father. YOU GOT IT?!" Judy said, as her patience with these dumb moose was slowly running out.

"Uh-huh." Was the only respond from the moose.

However...

"Cuckoo" Bucky "whispered" to his brother as he placed his hoof-fingered hand next to his mouth so that anything what he was saying would not wafted to Judy's ears.

"Hey! Who you call cuckoo?!" Pronk asked with the offended expression and glare targeted at his brother, mistaking that his brother had just called him cuckoo.

"No, no! (cough!) No-not you! (cough!) That's fruitcake! (double-cough!)" Bucky whispered again, as he started strongly coughing between of his whispering words.

"Who's fruitcake? And are you even okay, bro?" Pronk asked as he clearly saw his brother coughing strongly between of his whispering words.

However, Bucky wasn't gonna let the coughing to bother him as he tried to make it clear to his brother.

"No! (cough!) No, no! (double-cough!) It's (cough!) That (cough!) wolfie (cough!) or the fox as (cough!) as she claims to be. (cough!) Over there. (double-cough!) She's crazy." Bucky whispered.

However, the moose weren't seemingly clear with the fact that Judy had the very sensitive sense of hearing... and that she had already heard everything that dumb moose had just "whispered" to his just as dumb brother.

And overhearing all of what she just heard, frustrated and angered her really much that she finally lost both her cool and patience.

"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT I'M NOT WOLF, NOT FOX, NOT RACCOON DOG BUT A RABBIT WHO WAS MAGICALLY CHANGED INTO THE FOX... AND THAT THAT I... AM... NOT... CRAZY!" Judy barked angrily to the moose, growling at them loudly that she bared her canine teeth at them.

Because of this, both the moose were a bit frightened and they backed off a couple of steps backwards from the frustrated and angry Judy.

However, both the moose then immediately relaxed and took the expressions on their faces with which they signaled to angered Judy 'calm down' to get her to regain her cool.

"What?! Don't take us wrong, young lady. Whoever said you were crazy? We understand." Bucky said with the quite apologizing tone of voice.

Judy was taken aback after hearing that. Judy started to wonder that did these dumb moose finally understood what she had all of time tried to say/explain to them.

"What? You really do?" She asked with the tone of voice, which was the mix of both curiosity and confusion.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You see, no one wants to be what he or she is already by the species, and wants instead to be some other species. It's simple and easy. They just need to choose the species which they want to be and then simply behave so." Bucky explained.

Judy was quite dumbfounded and confused. She did not understand at all that what Bucky really meant with that " choose the species which they want to be and then simply behave so."

"What do you mean with that, bro?" Pronk asked from his brother, as dumbfounded and confused as Judy.

"Well, for example, if the bears claims that they're not bears but rather big and furry beavers, they must cut down trees with their trees, build the dams and live in the lodges like beaver. Plus, they need to eat what the beavers eat, meaning that no berries, honey, salmons nor meat but instead hardwoods peels and water plants. Secondly, if tortoises claims to be an antelopes, they just needs to run as fast as the antelopes does. Then the tortoises will no longer complain about the mocking insults targeted to the slowness of theirs nor hide inside of their shells from the predators. Thirdly, as you said a moment ago, if a mammoth can claims himself or herself to be opossum, he or she needs to act like cheerful and super energetic opossum, just like climbing on the trees, hang in the air from their tails while sleeping and sneaking under the bushes and in between the stones fallen tree logs and the holes in the ground like the opossums usually do. With that the large and overly strong mammoth doesn't feel himself or herself as an outcast among the other opossums. And finally, if the rabbits claims to be the birds, they needs to fly as the birds does. Then the rabbits who're afraid of heights would not be afraid of heights anymore nor to run away from predators on the ground. Simple" Bucky explained, or then he was just kidding.

However, that last one... if a rabbit claims to be a bird, rabbit needs to fly like the birds... strongly reminded Judy about her experienced deadly moment when she was falling down from the edge of the cliff to the certain death waiting in the bottom of the long fall while she was hunting down the fox, after that savage beast had stole her tribe's salmon catch long before this whole mess, in the nearby woods of the Bunnyburrow village. Back then she herself had said to herself that it would be more than only useful for the climbing-, and freely falling-hating rabbits if the rabbits really had a wings like the birds does, after she had saved herself from the certain death.

"And finally, if our new little fella claims that she's not the wolf but the fox and after that she claims that she's not the fox but the rabbit, then we're not moose either." Bucky continued as he walked to Judy, circling her one time around before he remained to stand next to her on her right side.

"What? We're-we're not, bro?" Pronk asked with the confusion.

"Absolutely not, bro." Bucky responded with the chuckle.

"For example, take a look at me. I'm, uh... I'm a little wacky squirrel. Yeah." Bucky said as he started to humorously wave his hoof-fingered hands in the air and jump around of Judy funnily... with the wacky-like expression on his face.

"See? I'm the squirrel. Then I jump around like the wacky squirrel and pick the acorns from the ground and from the trees like the squirrel." Bucky said as he as an example picked some acorns from the ground and started to energetically jump around like the squirrels do.

Bucky even tried to climb along a tree trunk to get into the branches, claiming that he's going to collect some pine cones for food just like squirrels... only to be slipped off from the trunk due to having the hooves in the tips of his fingers instead of the climb-able claws and fell back to the ground.

"Oh. Oh, yeah. Now I get it. Yeah. Beauty, eh?" Pronk said as he finally realizing that what his brother meant as Bucky crawled back on his feet... a bit dizzy but physically fine.

"Oh, well, he's actually the squirrel. One of the overgrown horned squirrel... but I'm more of a purebred and bloodthirsty wolverine, the horror of the reindeer! Look at my teeth and listen... GRRRRRR!" Pronk said as he led out the growl, which was loosely imitated to the growl of the predatory mammals.

It didn't sound scary but rather silly-sounding... or more likely canine-sounding growl... from the mouth of such of dumb prey animal like the moose. Well, at least in Judy's opinion, because she has already heard too many times over much more fearsome barks, growls, snarls and loud roars from to her village invading predatory mammals, such of wolves, bears, cougars and sometimes from the thieving badgers... and now even from the foxes.

"WHOA! Now you got my neck hairs to pop upright by horror, brother." Bucky said, humorously pretending to be scared of Pronk's mimicked growling before he eventually turned back to Judy.

"Well, does the gray fox wanna be the gray wolf or raccoon dog again?" Bucky asked from Judy.

Judy rolled her eyes and snorted in frustration and rubbed with her paw her forehead, realizing that it was the bad idea of even to stop to talk with the "pea-brained" moose who nothing else but made fun at the expense of her.

"Moose. Whatta pea-brains. Why did I ever even bother to talk to couple of dumb moose?" Judy asked from herself with the frustrated tone.

And then, much to her annoyance and even disgust, the moose leaned close of her.

"Nope! You remember? I'm a little wacky squirrel, eh?" Bucky humorously.

"And I am wolverine." Pronk reminded too, with the humorously deeper tone.

As the moose chuckled heartily at this, Judy had finally had enough of these moose childish hustle and making fun at the expense of her.

Judy also decided that if she did not get any useful help from anyone in her case, and just because everybody were either afraid of her, rejected her rudely, offended and humiliated her emotionally and made fun at the expense of her just because of being stuck in this disgusting skin of the fox form, she had to help herself and try to find a three-pointed mountain all by herself... no matter the cost.

And right now she had to get far away from these moose.

"Fine, thanks for your help, guys, I'll find the mountain by myself." Judy thanked sarcastically as she pushed the moose out of her way and was about to depart to the different direction, until she heard the moose shouting something after her.

"Oh, hey wait. If I were you, I wouldn't go that way." Pronk warned, but, however, the way how Judy responded to this warning was that Judy rudely ignored it and she continued walking.

"Why not, eh?" Bucky asked from his brother that why he had warned Judy to go to the direction to where she was now walking, ignoring all what the moose were talking about.

"Uh, well, there was a reason why she shouldn't go right that way. There was something hidden out there. I know that there's something but I just don't remember that what it exactly was right now." Pronk explained while he searched his mind for the reason why it wasn't wise to go on that direction.

"You better to remember it quick, Bro, because she's heading on that way and soon she'll disappear into the woods and it's then too late to warn her." Bucky reminded his brother, nodding towards of Judy, who was still in the moose sight.

"I'm trying all of time. Don't rush me..." Pronk said.

Judy snorted in annoyance. She was so frustrated that she had wasted her time of being halted and even made fun at the expense of her by the couple of dumb moose. So, Judy waved her paw towards them and tried to ignore everything what the moose were trying to tell her... especially even their presence... believing that the whole "reason" of what they were talking about behind of her back and from what they tried to warn her and speak her out of walking to the direction where she was just going to at the moment was only one of their stupid jokes.

Well, arrogantly, Judy decided to not listen to them in order to not fall on their jokes and act like there was no the any moose in the presence.

But suddenly...

As she pulled her left leg up from the ground, moved it forward and then pressed it back to the ground, she suddenly felt something pulling up from under of the leaves and grass and tightly wrapping itself around of her left ankle.

Before Judy managed to say "uh, oh!" realizing that to what she had just stepped her leg, the rope-like thing wrapped around of her left ankle, which another end was attached around of the trunk of the bending birch near of its top, pulled her unexpectedly and quite roughly off from the ground.

"WHOA!" Judy screamed, badly surprised about such of incident What she couldn't to expect and even to watch out for it... and now she was stuck.

After she was roughly lifted up from the ground from her leg, Judy was roughly, violently and painfully tossed by the banding birch and to the leg-trap braided rope to everywhere.

"OW!" Judy yelped loudly in pain as the trap tossed her painfully against to the rock, causing her to hit her head roughly against the rock.

"OW!" Judy yelped loudly again as the trap tossed her roughly against the trunk of the tree before the trap's rope and the banding birch pulled her once again up.

"OW!" Judy yelped as the trap smashed her head upside down violently against the ground... before she was pulled up from the ground again.

"OW!" Judy yelped as the trap swung her towards the nearby tree and caused her to hit her forehead against its thick-bodied and rock-hard branch.

Pronk and Bucky, only stood aside and followed with their eyes as the trap to which Judy had just stepped, tossed her violently around yet three times. Neither of them moved toward her to help her out from the situation to where Judy had got herself into once again.

The moose then turned to look at each others and nodded to each others, because they were both agree that if Judy could have bothered to listen to them and to their warnings, she would not be in the trouble where she was at the moment.

Excessive stupidity and self-assurance and arrogance will be fined; was the only thing what both of them had in their minds.

"So, you think of it yet?" Bucky asked from her brother just as if nothing had happened just recently, even though they both had just witnessed Judy's unpleasant encounter with the reason why NOT to walk on that direction.

"Well, uh, no. Not anymore. There's no longer needing to remember that reason because she already found it." Pronk responded.

"Yeah, and maybe we had better get out of here while we still can before the someone, that set that trap over there, comes back to check on its status." Bucky suggested while he started to turn around to leave from the scene.

"Yeah, definitely agree with you, bro." Pronk said and turned around to follow his brother into the woods.

Both of the moose were fully aware of that the such of traps were usually set by the predator mammals to hunt the unwary and unsuspecting prey mammals – and sometimes other predators - with the such of sneaky ways. And because they were right next to the trap's location, in the nearby had to be a trappers village, from where he could come every day to check the status of the trap... and to take all victims that were fall into his traps with him back to his village either for food or to be skinned.

Very soon, both the moose had disappeared out from the sight... and left Judy behind to hang from her left leg in the trap.

"Ow!" Judy moaned in pain as she held and rubbed her head with her canine paws. As the tossing eventually – and finally – stopped, Judy's head was suffering from the very painfully stinging waves of torturing headaches due to being tossed violently around like that and her head being smashed painfully against of everything nearby.

Luckily her head and skull were still in one piece.

"Great, yet again thanks to my typical luck. Like the salmon catch being stolen, my father's death, being changed into the fox by my own father's Spirit, being target for the little rocks thrown by the chipmunk and being beaten and made fun by the geese flock and running into couple of dumb moose weren't already enough, and now getting myself trapped into the leg-trap which even the infant bunny would have been able to wary of. How humiliating to hang in this like the prey-mammal... of course, because I am or was originally the prey-mammal. And what the next ... have to hang upside down for days until someone comes either free me or eat me?" Judy asked from herself as the headaches started to fade off.

"What now?" Judy asked from herself again as she started to look around and wonder that what she was supposed to do now.

And there happened to be a moment ago two pea-brained moose, who had to leave from the scene and leave her here to hang in the tree.

There was three fact that which didn't comfort her at all.

Fact one: Because she was in the middle of this trap's location, it was possible that there was somewhere nearby the village of the strange tribe or mammals living on these lands, in where possibly lived also the one who had set this trap over here.

Because the hunters in the every tribe – both prey and predator - had to go daily to check for the status of their traps and set them in place again if there's in fact the victim that had fall into the trap, Judy was expecting trapper to arrive on the scene to check the status of this trap at any moment today... or then... it was possible that the trapper has already been here to check for the status of the trap and should be back until tomorrow.

Fact two: It was also possible that there was no any village nearby, meaning that the tribe had probably changed their place of residence a long time ago and accidentally abandoned a trap here on its own...

... meaning that whoever falls into the trap, will face the grim truth to be left to hang in the trap upside down for days on end at the mercy of time, until either starvation, frostbite or even some predators come to claim the living victim or the remains of the victims.

Fact three: Speaking of predators, like with the rabbits... also the foxes has so many natural enemies all around of them, the worst of which are eagle owls, wolves, and lynxes. None of them would not hesitate to benefit from the fox trapped in the abandoned trap as the easier meal for them...

...plus, also some rabbits hunts down and kill the foxes as the self-defense in the duel between the natural enemies, or to prevent their little infant bunnies from getting into the jaws of the savagely hungry red foxes or then only because of the foxes fluffy fur in order to protect themselves from severe frosts of the winters.

However, Judy wasn't willing to wait stuck in the trap until one of those facts would have time to really happen to her, so she had to find the way to get down from the trap so that she could continue her journey towards the three-pointed mountain, and then be changed back into a rabbit she once was.

But the big question was that how?

Judy looked all around of her to find something what she could use to get herself down from the tree and loose from the such of humiliating trap.

After the half an hour, Nothing useful seemed to be around.

'Now what I could give for one single here forgotten knife?' Judy asked from herself yet again. She of course had to leave everything now at the moment useful behind after she had changed into the fox back in the peak of the mountain.

"There gotta be something useful..." Judy said with the annoyed tone, until she suddenly spotted something.

Lucky for her, Judy spotted the long stick with a forked twig.

Judy thought that if she could get the stick in her paws, she could use its forked twig in order to get a good supportive grip on the birch, pull herself up to the close of the spot where the trap's rope was attached, and then use her the fox claws to the good use to cut off the rope from around the birch trunk and be finally free.

The stick, however, wasn't quite near but neither completely out of her reach.

Even though Judy was ashamed to the whole idea, Judy started to sway herself towards the stick using at the same time her long fox arms in order to get the momentum to her swinging. During of which, Judy tried to grap from something near of the stick in order to receive support grip in order to receive the stick.

However, only one thing what Judy didn't know nor either cared at the moment due to her focus being on the stick, was that SOMEONE looked at her from the aside in the bushes and was approaching Judy slowly, quietly and that's why undetected by Judy.

 **To be continued...**

 **I hope you enjoyed of reading this chapter.**

 **Anyone of you readers spotted the reference from Ice Age: Meltdown while reading this chapter.**


	9. Chapter 9: Judy meets Nick

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 9: JUDY MEETS NICK  
**

 **Hello, once again, it's time to continue where we left off last time in my story.**

 **As you probably saw, I have changed my story's title as A FOX OF FRIENDSHIP.**

 **And by the way, I'm finally able to bring Nick Wilde to the story!**

 **ENJOY THE READING.**

It took from Judy a couple of quarters of an hour swinging in a trap, while she was trying to get a firm grip on a nearby stone, next of which the stick was resting.

Besides, this was slowly began to feel no longer just embarrassed but also frustrating after many failed attempt to get the grip from the rock.

But eventually, Judith was able to get with her clawed paw the good grip from the rock, and using it as a support she began to reach with her another free paw towards the stick.

Luckily to her, it wasn't far away, so she was able to grab to it with ease.

"Finally!" Panting Judith exclaimed with the grin.

Now Judith was able to focus on freeing herself from the trap with the help fo the stick.

Suddenly, she heard the silent whispers, which were coming from the hole in the rock.

The whispers immediately caught her full attention from her current goal and with the confused expression on her face, Judy looked inside of the hole to see that who had just whispered to her.

With her vulpine-like eyes, she had excellent night vision but it was, however, disturbed by the daylight. Due to that, the only one thing what she saw clearly the small dark figure – probably a cub or something - who was hiding inside of the rock and was staring back at her.

"Hey. Is the coast clear?" The figure asked by the whispering.

"Excuse me, what?" Judith asked with the confused tone. Despite her sensitive sense of hearing, she didn't hear clearly what the figure just said.

"Are there any hunters around? You know? Wolves? Lynxes? Eagle-owls? Have you seen any of them or anyone else who's wielding the long sticks, with the a pointed stones on their topside, around here?" The figure asked.

Judith was a bit dumbfounded.

"Uh... no." Judith simply answered, because she haven't seen any sight of wolves, lynxes or anyone else wielding the spears throughout the morning.

"OH, GOOD!" The figure loudly exclaimed as it suddenly and completely unexpectedly jumped out from the darkness of the hole, revealing itself at the same time revealing to Judith that the figure hiding in the dark hole was actually...

"FOOOOX!" Judith, badly surprised, screamed with the loud and girlish screaming voice - despite her tomboyish personality - after the figure, who had revealed itself as the red fox, had jumped right in front of Judy's face.

This fox's sudden appearing out of nowhere caused Judith to lose her grip from the rock's side – and at the same time to drop the stick from her paw - and the tree, which was highly bent and tensed after Judith had got the good grip from the rock and pulled herself forward to grab the stick into her paws, pulled her roughly back and tossed her roughly against the another tree... this time, her face and forehead ahead.

"Ouch." Judith moaned in pain and rubbed her highly sore and bruised forehead as the tree and the trap rope began to half-gently swing her from the side of another again.

"Oh, we foxes. We're so clever, aren't we? (laughs) And yes, I am fox alright. And so are you." The fox behind of her giggled.

Albeit reluctantly, Judith turned around to see the fox – or more likely she rolled around in the air due to being hanging in the trap - and saw that unlike what she had expected at first: The fox was just slender tiny fox cub instead of the big one and bloodthirsty one like the one Judy had encountered twice before she had ended its life as retribution.

Judging from this fox's small appearance with the big pointed and black-tipped ears, small snout and half short but fluffy tail compared to a full-grown fox's features, this fox appeared to be somewhat between of 8-12 years old fox cub, meaning that the cub hasn't yet reached to the end of the childhood and to become cunning thief or savage killer among of other his kind.

"Well, I guess that you didn't see that trap before you got yourself caught by it, huh? Well, I saw it from a mile away. Well, you must be pretty embarrassed... especially when you're hanging in the trap upside down... and yet naked, no offense of course." The fox cub giggled as he teasingly covered his eyes but peeked with one of his eyes between of his fingers.

Judith took a bit aback of this and looked down of herself and realized that the fox got the point in what he has just said. To her greatest embarrassment in her life, she was indeed hanging in the trap without any kind of clothes... unlike the fox, who at least had wearing the bear-fur coat and furry stocking cap. Judith fiercely scolded herself as dumb fox-turned-bunny for not noticing that earlier when she woke up in the riverbed.

"Well, well, well, Whatta surprise I didn't saw this earlier this morning." Judith said with the sarcastic tone as he picked a couple of large leaves from the adjacent bushes and hid with them her most private areas from the cub.

The sigh of hanging and embarrassed grey-furred fox – as judged from the red turned inside walls of Judith's large ears, which were still pointed but abnormally large for the foxes – caused the fox cub to burst into the hearty laugh. The fox even fell over and rolled in the ground holding from his stomach as the cup kept laughing.

"Hahahahaa... very funny." Judith said sarcastically.

The fox cup then managed – nearly with ease – to hold back his own laugh as he stood up and turned back to Judith.

"But don't worry. I'll keep this between of us." The fox said before he looked from the side to another to make sure that there was no one in presence. After that, the fox came closer of Judith's right ear.

"Trust me, with the fox's word of honor, I won't tell anyone." The fox whispered... so quietly that Judith either failed to hear correctly what did the fox say or then she didn't probably understand what the fox was after with that.

"What? Come again?" Judith asked with the annoyed and yet confused tone.

"Well, because that trap is seemingly a long ago forgotten and abandoned as set in place and nobody isn't with ninety-eight percent coming back to check the big catch the setter of this trap just missed – unless some hungry fox-eating predator happens to pass by and calls itself to lunch with you or then calls a such of fancy fox-lady like you for a date. But trust me, it will not be your the most wonderful romantic date night. each fox has always rejected by a charming young lynx or handsome wolfie in such a date nights – and it's not because of species – because of such of dates had always remained as every fox's very first and very last in their entire life." Trust me, I've seen it once."

"One fox once tried to impress the young and charming lynx lady and what happened? He ended up to warm the lynx by being as her fur coat." The fox cub told to Judy.

"So you need to get down from there before you really get such of invitation to out on a such of date." The fox cub said as he picked from the ground the stick what Judith had a moment ago tried to get into her paws.

"Let me help you." The fox added.

Judith looked at the fox with the dumbfounded expression on her face. That fox was really gonna help her out of this instead of mischievously teasing her for sudden accident and humiliation like the foxes always does.

Judith followed with her eyes and with the confused expression on her face how the fox walked to the stick, picked it from the ground and walked back to her the stick in his paws.

But, of course, Judith suddenly noticed that she felt a bit embarrassed of the word "fancy lady" the fox pup had just called her, which caused Judith's face to blush a little but the inside walls of her ears turned to the red, which Judith also immediately spotted and quickly covered it by picking her hanging ears into her paws and turned them around to prevent the fox from seeing how embarrassed he just had got her.

But that what the fox said about "Get an invitation to out on a date with the fox-eating predator – and yet that the cub's father had became a fur coat in a such of date" was far away from comfortable dates and it made Judy feel herself less comfortable... and due to being the fox-turned-bunny a.k.a herbivore/prey mammal, the meanings of the fox's words nearly made her sick.

But of course, inside of her mind, Judith asked from herself that what the fox was actually doing? Was this fox just mischievously pretending to help her or was he really going to help her? Was he gonna give that stick into her paws so that Judy could use it as support to lift herself up and using it as a support so that she could get to the level of the trap rope's knot around of the top of the tree and free herself from the trap?

However, Judith's confused expression turned into horror-like expression as her eyes widened after she saw that the fox cub, instead of handing the stick over to her, rose it above of his head like with intention to hit her with it.

"Oh, wait! What are you doing? WOW! WOWOWOWOWO, WAIWAIWAIWAIWAIT!" Judith tried to stop her from doing that, but it was too late.

The fox cup hit with the stick directly to the toes of her trapped leg, causing Judith to let out the loud yelp in pain after the burning wave of pain from the painful impact of the hard stick took over her toes.

"Hold still or this will not work." The fox warned as he kept whacking Judith with the stick.

At first, and painfully, once to Judith's trapped leg's knee...

...and next and twice, to Judith's bare stomach.

"No, wait. OW! Just... UGH! Stop that. Ow!" Judith tried to tell the fox cub to stop hitting her between the impacts but the cup just kept whacking her.

The next impact accidentally hit to Judith's buttocks... and after that, to her back... making Judith to yelp loudly in pain.

"OW! HEY! Can you please...?" Judith shouted until the cub's next hit Judy to her lower jaw, cutting her off from her words.

"Will you..." Judith tried to say until the stick hit her to her faces.

"If you just..." Judith tried again until the stick hit her to the left side of her head.

"C-can you..." Judith tried yet again until the stick hit to her vulpine-snout's upper jaw.

Now Judith had enough of playing Piñata and being continually beat by the fox cub.

"STOP IT!" Judith barked angrily to the cub, but she was too late to stop the fox cub from hitting her again with the stick... as the cub accidentally carried away and struck with the stick to beneath of Judith's chin, which sent Judy to swing from side to side.

However, the fox cub was able to stop in time after he realized that this way to "help" Judith out from the tree wasn't quite working...

...which Judith saw more than just clearly.

"Blasted, It's no use." The cub said.

The fox cub took the such of position – rubbing his the index finger and thumb around of his chin – and was like that he was considering alternative solutions to get Judith down from the tree.

Then, the cub got an idea and leaned against the stick, which he had placed upright to the ground.

"Now I know how you're gonna get down from there. When the animal doesn't get out from the trap on his/her own, the only way to get down is to get the fangs on work and _chew... your... own... foot off._ " The fox cub said with such of smug grin on his lips like the whole thing is somewhat COOL thing.

"And trust me. The self-made surgery means demands lots of guts... and the whole operation means a lots of pain... _and a lots of blood._ " The cub added with the dramatic tone.

However, Judith, while she rubbed the multiple sore and bruised spots of her head with her paws, was far away from impressed and more than less willing to do so what the fox cub "advised" her to do.

"And I say... ow... that I don't need some stupid fox's help neither his stupid advises. I just need the stick." Judith said, openly with rude and rudely demanding tone.

However, a bit Judith's surprise, the fox cub did not took her rude demanding as offensive nor showed any sight of hurt feelings in the fox's face, but instead, the fox took the innocent smile on his lips and kindly handed over the stick to her.

"Okay, here you go." The cub simply said.

"Oh, nonononono you don't! I did say, I don't need the some dumb fox's help, means that I don't need you to hand it over to me. I'll do it myself." Judith said rudely.

"Are you kidding me, sis? It took from you half an hour to reach that stick, I saw it myself. Isn't it much easier to have it politely given?" The fox cub asked.

"No! Especially not from you! Besides, it's none of your business. And I already told you, I don't need your help. I'll do this myself. So, put it back." Judith demanded.

The fox cub was about to put the stick to the ground next to Judy, until Judith suddenly and with the rude tone stopped him from doing so.

"No, not to it. Too easy and too much helpful from you! Put it to there where you found it!"

"Oh, okay." The fox cub simply answered.

"To the left. To next to that little rock." Judith advised by pointing with her clawed finger the spot where the stick had lied a moment ago, while she starting to slowly lose her patience with that fox.

The fox cub carried the stick away and then put it to there where Judith had spotted it after she got caught in the trap and tried to reach to it before the fox cub appeared out of nowhere.

"Here?" The fox cub asked after he had placed the stick to its original place.

"YES!" Judith exclaimed out of frustration.

"Okay... and good luck for regain it." The cub said and, much to Judith's annoyance, the fox cub didn't left from the scene, but instead sat down and leaned comfortably against the fallen log... right next to the stick.

The fox probably wanted to see how Judith proceeded with her attempts to regain the stick, which he failed to gain in half an hour about fifteen-twenty minutes ago... judging from the fox's a smug look on his face... he was sure that this was gonna take for hours.

However, Judith put the fox out of her mind... in fact, she tried to even ignore the cub's whole presence... and focused all her attention in to regain the stick from the ground, which Judith knew would be much difficult, because the fox cub was sitting between of the small rock and the stick, so Judith couldn't anymore try to reach at first to that rock to use it as support to reach to the stick.

As Judith started to swing herself towards the stick, the fox cub gathered some blueberries from the nearby bush and started to pick them one by one into his mouth.

"Boy, that tree is quite strong, huh? If fact, depending on how long it has been abandoned in the bent position, I was pretty sure it's weakened by the bent position and would snap in half after someone had stepped to the trap and get caught."

"You know what, when I was little, I had some good buddy grizzly bear named Koda, quite talkative, energetic and sometimes a bit over-eager or something but a good friend still, who was really into climbing trees. Yeah, I know that it sounds weird that if two predators, such like the grizzly bear and the red fox - what all tend to avoid like the plague because of our species, not because of being predator - suddenly befriends with each others. But yeah, anyway. As I said, he liked to climb to all kinds of trees. He liked to climb pine trees, oaks, cedars, maples, birch trees, willow trees and so on... either trying to get away from me while we were playing tag, trying to show me how brave he was by climbing higher and higher always to the top of the trees, trying to chase some squirrels in the branches, during the fierce storm winds or in attempt to get to the bee hives for some honey..." The fox explained, even though Judith cared nothing about it but kept swimming herself in the tree and desperately tried to reach to the stick wit her free paws.

 **13 HOURS LATER...**

The day was slowly turning into the night, as the early-autumnal forest and its early-autumnal shade of color began to darken slightly.

And yet, Judith was still trying to reach to the stick, but without success.

But when swinging didn't help her, as it made him yet sick and nearly caused her to throw up, Judith changed her tactics and using her long vulpine-claws, Judy began to crawl along the trunk of the tree to the ground and along the ground towards the stick.

During of which, Judith gritted teeth in pain as a rope around her ankle tightened painfully at every moment as she was trying to get closer to the stick.

Moreover, a fox cub was still at the presence, sitting in the very same place he had set to sit about thirteen hours ago and used his time by telling to Judith some of his memorable moments in his life, from which Judith cared less.

"...they were too small to be swallowed at whole. Besides, they're always skin and bones and nobody never knows where they have been. Eating them would do nothing more than just leave a bad taste and bad breath to mouth... and worse, their bones would get stuck in my throat... and from that moment on, I made and vow that I would never again eat mice." The fox cub said, periodically giggling and smiling as he remembered his past events.

Judith tried to ignore this as well as she was able. She didn't care if the fox cub didn't like to eat mice, even though the mice belonged to foxes diet as well as rabbits did. But the idea of eating mice and rabbits made her sick and she tried her best to ignore it... as well as all memories of her unpleasant encounters with the certain fox reminded by the cub's presence and everything what came out from the fox's mouth.

The fox cub followed patiently as Judith was so close to reach to the stick, which was however a too far from her reach.

Judith tried to get closer the stick or stretch out her paw forward a little but to reach to it... but without avail.

Suddenly, Judith felt eventually something stick-hard laying in her paw and fingers and after quickly recognizing that what it was, she immediately wrapped her fingers around of it and picked it off the ground. immediately

However, Judith was completely unaware of the fact that the fox cub had enough of this – due to Judy's attempt to get the stick has already taken for hours, numerous times failing, and it was nearly the night. So, the fox cub had secretly decided to help Judith a little bit by pushing lazily with his paw the stick towards Judy's desperately for the stick reaching paw.

"HA! See, you dumb fox?" Judith exclaimed triumphantly and swung the stick upwards towards the trap's treetop, and after one of its a branching twig got caught firmly in the treetop, Judith used it as support to climb up next to the trap rope's knot.

"It's all about using your head. Use your head more and less force and then you succeed" Judith said optimistically as he took the grip with her jaws from the stick so she would use both of her paws and claws to untie the knot.

The fox cup rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, but the smart one would have use her head and resort to voluntarily helping paw in the first place, instead of spending the whole day hanging upside down from the tree and trying to help herself with no avail." the fox cub said sarcastically.

"Hahaa... very funny, dumb fox." Judith mumbled a stick in the mouth and kept focusing to untie the knot and finally get herself free.

"And one more thing yet... Maybe that tree, even after being abandoned in the bent position for so long, can yet withstand your weight, but did you take into consideration that can the stick withstand your weight if you move a large part of your weight under it or if you move your head so rapidly?" The fox cub questioned, after seeing that Judith was impatiently and rapidly moving her head while the stick was still in her mouth.

"Say what?" Judith asked out of confusion as she recklessly turned her head from the knot to look down to the fox.

Bad mistake from her.

The stick bent so sharply that it snapped in half, causing to Judith to lose her only support and maybe her only useful chance to free herself... and she even fell her head ahead to the ground and smashed her head against the ground.

"OW!" Judith sharply yelped in pain after the impact to the ground.

"OOOOH! That was fun! Do that again!" The fox cub said eagerly as the cub jumped on his feet and jumped next to Judith, who was once again hanging upside down and rolling around in the air while she rubbed her sore head.

Having enough of the fox cub presence, Judith turned to the fox cub with the annoyed tone and frustrated mind.

"Don't you have something else to do than stay here and witness my miserable self's suffering... or don't you have someplace to go?" Judith asked with both frustrated and annoyed tone as she started to pull herself up to get a good grip from the treetop with her clawed paws.

"Yeah, the Foxtopia. I was in fact heading right to there until I crossed my path with yours." The fox cub answered.

And then, the fox cub started to walk around of hanging Judith, was kept pulling herself up, and rubbed his chin with his fingers as he was considering something.

Then the cub got an idea as he snapped his fingers and turned back to Judith.

"How about this? I get you down, then we go there together. Deal?" The cub suggested.

Judith silently snorted in frustration but also in desperation. Even though she had already said to that "stubborn and annoying" fox cub that she did not need his help of getting down from the tree, Judith was nearly forced to admit that she was quickly running out the ideas to get herself free. And whatever the fox cub meant about with the place called "Foxtopia", Judith cared nothing about it. Only one thing Judy mostly cared about at the moment was at first to get down from the tree and then leave to find the tree-pointed mountain and turn back to bunny she was.

But Judy had eventually and reluctantly admit that she had no another choice to get down from the tree on her own... and if that fox so so so voluntarily offered to help her down, there was nothing else she was able to do but to swallow her pride for while and accept the only help what was on offer... even in the form of the fox.

"Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, fine, fine, fine." Judith said with the annoyed tone as she was holding with her clawed paws from the rope while she rolled around in the air.

"If you can magically get me down, I'll go with you to this... this... what it was now..." Judith sarcastically repeated until she eventually forget the name of the place the fox cub mentioned a moment ago.

"Foxtopia." The cub reminded.

"Whatever." Judith said with the annoyed and lazy tone.

Then Judith let go from the rope and landed to the ground on her front paws, next to the right next to her standing fox cub.

"They were your terms, and now I have my own terms. We do so as you said if you manage to get me down, but if you can't... You turn around, walk away, and never come back, EVER." Judith said dead-seriously and sternly.

The fox cub turned to him with the skeptical expression on his face... showing to Judith that NOW the cub took her stern and rude words seriously.

"You swear? With the foxes word of honor?" The cub asked with the skeptical tone.

"Yeah." Judith simply answered.

"Prove it, with the pinky swear?" The fox cub demanded as he stretched out his clawed pinky forward.

"Yeah, sure, fine. With the pinky swear." Judith said and - with reluctance and the slight look of disgust in her face - she stretched out her own clawed pinky, which she almost immediately wrapped around of the fox cub's pinky and shook it slightly, before pulling her pinky immediately off from contact with the fox cub's pinky – not even believing that why in the world she was even making the deal with the fox, the one of the most worst animals in the world. Judy knew that the foxes, all of them, are known from their sneaky nature and their cunning skills and manipulative tongue to trick the other animals for their own selfish gain and from their bloodthirsty lust for taste of bunny meat. After Judy had shook her pinky with the cub's own, she pulled her paw immediately back.

"Alright, just a moment. This won't take long." The fox cub said with the sly grin on his face and walked towards the another nearby rock, where was the wooden stake been dug into the ground and to around of it was tied the rope, which was leading to the tree to which the trap was set.

Probably the stake attachment rope of this trap, which held the trap in the tree.

Judith was more than just a dumbfounded after what the fox did just said. How was this small "dumb" fox gonna get her down from the tree although he seemed to have nothing knowledge about how to set and how to undone the traps set by the predatory mammals...

...and the foxes, who are indeed predators but usually prey for the wolves and lynxes, do not usually use the traps to trap other animals. They usually use their cunning and manipulative mind and thieving skills to get what they want.

"Oh, c'mon! Don't you get it. This is the trap set by the predators who most likely hunts the foxes and the foxes never set the traps by themselves, which means that you're just a dumb little fox with no knowledge about the traps nor about undone them. So, there's no way you're going to be able..." Judith rudely protested, until she saw that the fox cub was standing the next of the dowel and the attachment rope.

"Dumb fox with no knowledge about the traps nor about undone them", huh? You seriously think so, do ya? Huh?" The fox cub said with surprisingly unhurt expression and smug look on his face.

"So, you think that I'm just a dumb fox cub with no knowledge about the traps, like this one called Twitch-Up Snare, which is tightly attached to this dowel over here, huh? Well, if I don't know anything about undoing these traps, then I assume you yourself probably know that what's gonna happen if I remove this stake off from the ground which in results releases the tree to which the trap is set, do you?" The cub said with the sly grin.

Judith's eyes widened and her mouth went into Oh uh-like position, showing to the cub that she was more than just aware of what will happen if the fox was gonna do what he just said.

"It's called the innocent payback, sweetheart." The cub added with the sly look.

"Oh, no. Oh, no! OH, NO! NONONONONO, YOU DUMB FOX!" Judith said trying to halt the fox from doing it, but it was too late to stop him.

The cub kicked the dowel off from the ground, releasing the tight rope and before Judy managed to say "Oh, uh" and the bend tree immediately catapulted her high into the air.

"WHOOOAAAAA!" Judy shouted loudly.

And then she was fell down to the ground with her own weight and this time not being violently pulled nor tossed around again, but the landing back – her head once again ahead - to the ground was far from gentle and soft landing.

Plus, the treetop finally gave up and snapped in half...

And the treetop fell roughly on Judith's bare stomach with the speed and power, which violently pushed all air out of her.

Judith's eyes widened from the impact and her tongue was hanging out from her mouth as she rolled in burning pain in the ground while holding her nearly from inside empty stomach with her clawed paws and tried desperately catch some breath.

The fox had got his payback perfectly twofold or perhaps tenfold.

The cub then rushed to her, but not in intent to check her well-being.

"Okay, so I'm thinking. Despite our perfect night-vision, we have to travel by day and sleep by night. My bedtime is an hour after sunset, said by my mom, but sometimes the right bedtimes happens to slip from my mind, and..." The fox cub eagerly listed, until he was suddenly cut off by the words.

The cub then started to sniff the air for while as he got the scent of the sudden presence, meanwhile Judith was slowly recovering from the pain in her mouth, slowly catching her breath and she slowly and carefully started to get up on her feet.

The cub sniffed the air a little bit, until it suddenly gasped like in horror. The fox then quickly turned around and started to run in all fours away from the scene deeper in the woods.

"RUN!" The cub shouted to Judy as he disappeared to the woods.

However, Judith had no intention of escape. In fact, she was more than pleased with the fact that the "annoying" fox cub had finally took off and left her alone.

"Yeah, good riddance." Judith said after the fox cub as as he disappeared to the woods, while she remained in still and rubbed her bruised head.

 **To be continue...**

 **I hope you enjoyed of reading this chapter.**

 **Well, I did not have the heart to leave some features from Brother Bear away from my fanfiction story, so I decided to add Koda's name to be even mentioned in this chapter.**

 **And for all of those who wanted Nick as an adult and Wildehopps for my story, my apologizes. Yes, I too was interested of making Nick to be an adult fox, but unfortunately, there wasn't enough of ideas for adult Nick... so I decided to keep Nick as the cub, with admixture of Koda's eager attitude and Nick's street-smartness.**

 **I hope that this is enough to satisfy everyone.**


	10. Chapter 10: Uneasy Deal

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 10: UNEASY DEAL  
**

 **ENJOY THE READING.**

"RUN!" The cub shouted to Judy as he disappeared to the woods.

However, Judith had no intention of escape. In fact, she was more than pleased with the fact that the "annoying" fox cub had finally took off and left her alone.

"Yeah, good riddance." Judith said after the fox cub as as he disappeared to the woods, while she remained in still and rubbed her bruised head.

Suddenly, just like the fox cub did, Judith's vulpine-nose caught the scent of sudden presence, which was really nearby. Judith raised her snout into the air, turned her head from side to side and sniffed the air in order to recognize the scent's owner or the direction from where it was coming from.

Without her notice, she suddenly went into alarmed state and the sudden concerned expression appeared on her face.

And then, while she wasn't looking her back, someone suddenly and undetected by Judith jumped out from the bushes and hide behind the birches.

It was Jill.

After Jill had rushed to behind of the birches and leaned hardly against them, she noticed that she was breathing rapidly and even a bit in panic. And no wonder, because she was the very first time on her own hunting the fox.

She was fearing that THE FOX had either saw her or caught her scent, because she had not realized to walk beneath of the wind which was floating towards the fox's direct direction, which brought her scent to the fox's nose.

And the certain savage bloodthirsty fox she had met in her previous and nearly lethal encounter with the such of monster with her now-dead father and little-sister.

From her past encounter with such of monster, which nearly cost her life, Jill knew that trying to hunt down such of big and bloodthirsty fox down on her own would be much more difficult without her father and little-sister's help... and yet, it may be even a suicide attempt after having witnessing how dangerous the foxes will be.

However, she calmed herself and relaxed her tensed muscles and balanced her breath.

Jill took the look to Judith's totem hanging in her spear.

It reminded Jill about the vow she had gave to herself for Judith's memory.

The concerned expression on her face turned into darker and vengeful look.

Jill carefully peeked from behind of the birches to check the fox.

The beast had caught her scent, but now when Jill was beneath of the wind, the beast was unaware that from where the scent was coming.

Jill then came out from her hide and started to sneak towards the fox.

Her one misstep suddenly stepped on a branch, which broke under her weight.

The snapping sound was good enough for the fox to hear it from this close, but instead of being frustrated about the misstep or the sound it caused, Jill just kept sneaking towards the fox...

...the spear ready for the lethal strike...

...not being yet detected by the fox...

...its back was turned to her direction...

...and with such of good opportunity to avenge both her father and little-sister...

...it was now or never.

As Jill had though, although not caring about it, the sound of the broken branch under the misstep caught Judith's attention and she turned around to see that who was behind of her.

Judith immediately spotted Jill coming out from the shadows to sunset's light.

Her big-sister? Here?

"Jill? Oh Jill, you found me. You came for me." Judith said with the relief tone. She was very glad to see her big-sister.

However, Judith failed to see the dark and ominous look in Jill's face. Judith even failed to see how calmly and ominously Jill even moved towards her.

In fact, Jill failed also to see that why the fox looked so different than in the last encounters. She completely failed to see and understand that why the fox's fur- and eye-colors were identical to her sister's eyes and fur-color instead of the foxes normal color.

However, Jill was probably seeing the red in her eyes.

"You wouldn't believe what a nightmare this has been." Judith said as she moved closer to Jill.

But the closer Judy unsuspectingly walked toward her older sister, the more, Judith started, although slowly, to realize that something was wrong with her sister... especially when Jill suddenly and OMINOUSLY BEGAN TO THREATENINGLY RISE HER SPEAR INTO "READY-TO-KILL-HER" POSITION!

Judith's relieved expression on her face turned quickly into confusion and the sheer horror after she half-completely realized that what her sister was about to do.

"Jill? WHOA! JILL, WAIT! IT'S ME, JUDITH!" Judith tried to reason with her seemingly crazed sister as she started at first slowly and then rapidly fall back as her own sister blindly attacked her WITH THE SPEAR.

But suddenly, Judy was tripped over to the ground by the root of the nearby tree.

And much to her horror, the broken treetop which was still attached to her leg buy the trap's rope, get stuck into the root, trapping her in the place.

Jill hurriedly rushed to Judith and furiously screaming she raised her spear up, threatening to kill trapped Judith with the one blow into the heart.

"NO!"

Judy barely managed to dodge the spear before it's pointed stone-head hit her.

Not understanding what's got into her sister, but definitely not willing to stay to find out by asking "what's wrong with you?" from her sister after to her horror realizing that for some to her unknown reason her own sister was blindly gonna kill her, Judith quickly climbed back on her feet and leaped in panic in her all fours striving to get far away from her sister by running with her newfound fox speed, despite the fact that her leg was still attached to the treetop which was still stuck in the tree's root.

As Jill pulled her spear off from the ground, in panic, Judith doubled her running speed with all fours, pulling herself forward with her own claws. Eventually, the rope snapped in half, freeing Judith from the treetop, which kept her in place due being itself stuck in the root, and just nick in time before Jill managed to stab her with her spear fatally in the back.

Jill tried furiously attack Judith again, raising her spear above of her head as she rushed after Judith.

Judith did not wanted to fight her own sister, even in her crazed state and blind vengeful-like rage, but knowing that the reasoning with her was pointless, she had to buy herself some time to get far away from her.

As Jill lunged at her again, Judith leaped towards the next tree's lower branch and pulled it backwards in order to bend it sharply.

And as Jill attacked her again, Judith, even though with reluctance, let go from the branch and it catapulted itself towards Jill. The catapulting branch's impact force was strong enough to knock even so furious and vengeful-like bunny to the ground and unconscious, but only for a moment.

Wasting no time, Judith quickly leaped again on her all fours and rushed through the woods.

It was kind of weird to run like the vulpine-animals, because the vulpine predators were really fast from their feet and yet more flexible when it was supposed to run either after the prey or run away in the woods which were always full of trees, rocks, mounds, pits and other obstacles... for example steep hills, in one of which Judith suddenly noticed that her running speed was growing nearly uncontrollable.

Because Judith wasn't used to run as fast and smoothly like the foxes or another vulpine animal like she had used to the bunnies' own bouncing-like running style, she eventually lost all control over her legs and just kept uncontrollably running, no able to stop herself in any way.

However, she suddenly lost both her balance and the foothold after she accidentally and uncontrollably run over the cliff and was freely falling, or more likely rapidly rolling, down the rest of the hill down.

Judy landed roughly to the open road, which was full of large pools and creeks.

Ignoring all bruises she got from the rolling along the hill and all the pain she felt in the rough landing, including her soaking wet fur due to landing in middle of the large pool, Judith quickly rose back on her feet and looked in panic all around of her as she tried to to find with her eyes the hiding spot from Jill, knowing that for what reason Jill ever was chasing her, she will not give up so easily.

Judith then saw that the water in the pools and creeks in this road was coming from a nearby large glacier which was in another side of the road.

She was either glacier's melted flow direction or then its direction of arrival.

Looking carefully, Judith spotted that there was a crack in the ice wall, leading to the ice cave inside of the glacier.

The crack was quite narrow, so it made Judith to wonder that was she able to fit herself inside of it and in the cave to hide from Jill... or was she only gonna get herself stuck in the crack and then be easily hunted down by Jill.

However, Judith heard Jill's furious cry coming from the woods, telling her that Jill was nearby and was coming closer and closer, leaving Judith without the choices, only the urged that she had to try the crack.

So, Judith quickly started running towards the crack in the ice wall.

As Judy had thought, the crack was quite narrow and the small and cramped space between of the crack's walls made it difficult for Judith to fit in, but knowing that Jill was still out there hunting for her, Judith pushed herself harder in the crack...

...until the space between of the ice walls suddenly expanded and Judith was free to run deeper into the ice cave, where was a small pool of water, surrounded by the stony ground pushing out from the ice, and to which the melted ice water flowed from inside of the ice and then the water flowed from the pool to outside of the glacier, through of the crack in the ice wall.

After she was there, Judith was finally able to catch some breath.

But she didn't. Panting heavily and rapidly, both exhausted and mentally shocked, Judith turned around and looked behind of her to the crack The recent and sudden moment and the narrow survival from the certain death in the paws of her own big sister had taken to her mentally... nearly traumatically.

Nothing didn't happened. Nobody didn't come to the crack leading to this cave.

With a sigh of relief, Judith was about to go deeper into the cave until she heard under the steps cracking ice's sound in the ice ceiling of the cave.

Startled, Judith quickly leaned against the ice wall and looked up to the ceiling.

It was Jill, she had arrived to the glacier, but luckily to Judith, she had failed to spot the crack in the ice wall but was instead walking right over of her and her hiding spot.

Jill suddenly stopped right above of her.

Not daring to let out any sound out of fear of being found by her crazed big sister, Judith just kept staring at her sister's figure standing over the ice ceiling with the eyes filled fear.

Suddenly...

"Is she gone?" Whispered loudly the very familiar voice from behind the corner.

The sudden voice caught Judith's attention to turn from Jill's figure to behind of the corner, where she, much to her surprise, spotted the same fox cub hiding here from Jill as well.

However, Judith wasn't the only one who had caught the cub's sudden voice.

Judith turned to Jill, but immediately gasped in shock after she noticed that the cub's sudden voice had also caught Jill's attention, as Jill suddenly turned around to see from where the sudden voice had came from.

"I though that it was gonna..." The cub said again, until Judith, both frustrated of the cub not being aware about Jill's presence and yet in fear that the cub's unawareness about Jill's presence and his own loud whispering might reveal to her their location, crabbed the cub into his paws and quickly pulled her left paw over the cub's mouth to keep him veeeery quiet.

"Hsss!" Judith hushed.

""Keep it down!" Judy added by whispering as she kept staring at Jill.

The mumbling cub tried to wriggle out of Judith's arms but with no avail. Judith's tensed arms were too tight around of the cub's body and over his mouth...

...and Judith kept staring at her sister who still looked over of her right shoulder skeptically.

But eventually, Jill turned her head around and kept rapidly moving forward... until she was completely gone.

Now Judith was able to breath in relief that she had narrowly survived from such of shocking "reunion" with her sister.

Judith lowered her head down in sorrow and confusion. She was so deep in her own thought that she failed to hear the cub's rapid mumbling to her her arms still around of the cub's body and her paw over of the cub's mouth.

"Hello! I can't breath!" The cub suddenly got said.

Without paying any attention to the cub, Judith released her arm and paw from around of the cub's body and mouth. The cub immediately gasped for some air after getting released.

"Man, you nearly smothered me!" The cub said between of panting as he turned to Judith.

However, ignoring the cub's presence, Judith climbed on her feet and slowly and slowly and silently and her head lowered down in sorrow and confusion, Judith walked to the end of the cave... the cub silently following her to there... until Judith suddenly stopped under of the wave-like ice shelter and snuggled up to sit on the ground.

Judith was silent for a moment, until she eventually raised her head to the ceiling, to the direction to where Jill had just gone.

"What's got into her? Why is she chasing me?" Judith silently asked from herself.

"Don't you get it? We're foxes and that was the savage bunny with the spears. We're natural enemies you know that? And the bunnies are one of the most dangerous fox-haters. That's what they are and that's what they do for us." The cub said trying to snap Judith out of it and reminding her that she was the fox.

"I know but that's not like her." Judith whispered.

"Yeah, but lucky for her, he didn't find us, 'cause if she did, it would not be beautiful sight for her." The fox cub said as he stared at the direction where Jill just went.

"Usually, I don't want to scare or hurt anyone, but when I get into a fight from which I cannot escape, I go all crazy and then I become to barking, growling and RAGING SAVAGE BALL OF RED FUR... TEARING MY ENEMIES APART... WHICH MEANS SO MUCH BLOOD!" The cub exclaimed as he took the brave and fierce-like expression on his face – baring at the same time his tiny teeth – jumped all around in all fours in front of Judith until the cub eventually leaped towards Judith and waved his paws with the extended claws, until the cub eventually lost his balance during of his "attacking" move and he fell to the ground...

...which snapped Judith out of her thoughts about the recent unhappy reunion with her sister and she turned her attention to the cub as the fox get back on his feet.

"I mean, I don't want to brag myself or nothing, but I got some cool moves to defend myself." The cub said with the smug and self-bragging expression.

"Oh, really?" Judith said with the lazy tone.

"Yep." the cub said as he again extended his claws.

This first one, well... It's just a little thing...but I like to call it "The Triple-Slash!" The cub said until he did the sudden move to his right side and waved three times his claws in the air... like he was about to slash with his left paw's claws his invisible opponent at first towards his stomach to distract him, then with his right paw's claws to the level of the legs to scratch his opponent's leg, then the cub turned quickly around and waved his left paw's claws into the air like he was slashing with them... or more likely punching... to his opponent's lower jaw.

The move also made the cub to lose his balance again and fell on his butt to the ground, but still with the eager but smug smile on his face.

"And this one I like to call..." The cub said as she stood up, picked the long stick from the ground in his paws, took the battle-ready position and held himself back for while until...

"FLYING FURY OF DEATH!" The cub suddenly exclaimed as the cub did the cool battle-moves by twirling the stick rapidly in his paws like the staff, moving towards Judith while making "YAH!" sounds as the cub leaped into the air for a couple of times, making a couple of cool and straight double-kick and a somersault in the air, until the cub suddenly stopped in front of Judith and quickly pulled the stick forward like hitting with it the another invisible opponent into the face.

"YAH!" The cup shouted as he threw the stick aside, turned around, crossed his arms and pulled them back the claws in the position like the cub was ripping his opponent's face off with his claws.

After that, the cub took the another battle-ready position, stretching out his right arm and pulling up his left arm... with the brave-looking expression on his face.

Judith looked at the cub's "moves" with the bored expression in her face.

"Uh-huh." Judith said with the bored tone.

"So, you're saying that you're big and brave enough to face the real hunter, aren't you?" Judith asked with the small smile.

"Yeah! Anytime soon! There's no hunter - no wolf, no lynx, no eagle-owl nor the bunny - who has the match for the brave fox like me!" The cub said with the self-confident and smug tone as he still remained in the same battle-ready position.

Judith slightly shook her head.

"That remains to be seen." Judith said, until she looked up to the ceiling and suddenly gasped in shock and horror.

"HUNTRESS! SHE'S COMING BACK!" Judith suddenly and loudly exclaimed as she raised her paws over of her mouth.

The fox cub gasped in shock and fear and quickly rushed behind of Judith's back for protection and hiding spot.

Judith chuckled smugly after seeing that how easily the fox cub had fell on that harmless joke.

"Hmph! Too typical." Judith said lazily, as she turned to her leg in which was still the trap's rope wrapped around of her ankle. It was time to remove the first horn in her side from her leg.

"Hehehee, yeah. That was good one." The cub said sarcastically chuckling after he realized that Judith had just tricked him.

"Well, the next time we run into that hunter..." The cub started yet again with the self-confident as he came out from behind of Judith's back, until Judith rudely interrupted him.

"Hey kid. Let's make a two facts clear, okay? At first, there is no "we". And secondly, I'm certainly not gonna take you with me to any Foxtopia." Judith said rudely as she still kept untying the rope around of her ankle.

The cub then took the confused and shocked expression on his face, not believing his ears after hearing what Judith did just say.

"What?! B-but we had a deal, you remember? You'll come with me to there if I manage to get you down from that tree, you remember? You even made the pinky swore with me." The cub reminded Judith.

"Yeah, well, I was just kidding, kid. I just wanted you to get me down from there so I can to continue my journey to my "none-of-your-business" goal." Judith said again quite rudely.

As the knot around of her ankle was not wanting to get loosened, Judith put that aside and rose on her feets...

"See ya, kid." Judith muttered as she started to walk towards the crack to leave from the cave.

The cub looked after her with the hurt and still confused expression on his face. The cub started immediately to consider some reason or excuse to prevent Judith to leave him behind just like that.

"Wait, uh... I... uh..." The cub started at first, until he was cut off from his own words.

Reluctantly, Judith stopped and turned back to the fox cub.

The cub lowered his head down and went into the very pitiful position... with the reasons.

"The truth is, I got separated from my mom. I've already spent two days alone in the woods trying to find her but with no avail."

"And I've even tried to ask the help from some other animals and birds on my way, but they're all just refused to help me and rejected me... just because they think of me and even call me as sneaky beggar or a cunning con-artist, who was only treacherously after their stuff."

"There's also the fox-eating wolves, lynxes and eagle-owls stalking the small lonely and defenseless fox cubs like me. And now, with this bunny hunter around..." The fox cub said with the pitiful and pleading tone.

However, Judith did not took pity for the cub, because to her, the foxes were all exactly what the cub had just mentioned about the other animals thinking about the foxes in the first place - as sneaky beggars or a cunning con-artists, who were only treacherously after the others with the hard work earned stuff."

"Kid, I got my own problems. Your problems aren't my business as well mine aren't yours." Judith said.

"Oh, Come on. Please. Can't we just go there together? The Foxtopia is the only place in the entire world where the foxes are welcomed to join together and feel themselves to be home and where is no fear to be wrongly discriminated and prejudiced by the other animals. And I meant it. There's a lot of friendly foxes, the large bushes with the tons of blueberries and tons of delicious roasted grouses and salmons from the nearby salmon run. And every night we watch fantastic sight when the bright _Lights_ from the skies touch the Mountain. Last year..." The cub said eagerly.

Judith's eyes eventually widened in surprise after the cub mentioned something about the "the bright _Lights_ from the skies touch the Mountain".

"What? Woah, woah! Wait, wait. Slow down. What did you say?" Judith asked curiously, demanding the cub to repeat what he just said.

"There's a lots of friendly foxes and blueberries, turkeys and salmons for everyone." The cub eagerly said. After seeing Judith's reacting, although he at first didn't realize that why, he was filled with the hope that Judith will come with him.

However, even though this a bit frustrated Judith, she managed to keep her cool and asked again, and much more clearly this time.

"No, no, no. I didn't mean that. You mentioned something about the _Lights_ touching the Mountain, didn't you? So, you know where the _Lights_ touch the earth?" Judith asked.

"Yeah, they do. In the top of the high three-pointed Mountain. It's standing right by the Foxtopia." The cub said eagerly as he rushed to next to Judith.

However, Judith had kept her skeptical look on her face... even after the three-pointed Mountain, where the _Lights_ of the _Northern Lights_ touches the earth, came to mention... straight from the mouth of the fox.

"You're kidding me. Just trying to trick me to get me to take you with me, aren't you?" Judith asked with the suspicious tone.

"No, no, no, I'm not. I'm not kidding or trying to trick anyone in here. There's really a such of Mountain practically next door. Come on and I'll show it to you. It'll be great. You will not regret it." The fox exclaimed much more enthusiastic and louder.

Judith shook her head and sighed deep in frustration. She wasn't able to believe that the Mountain to where her mother had advised her to go, if she wanted to turn back to bunny she was, was right next door of the place called Foxtopia as the fox cub had kept calling it.

That meant that she was more than just forced to accompany with the fox cub with the loud and annoyingly and endlessly talkative mouth.

"I promise to help you escape from every trap you walk into." The cub added, reminding humiliatingly her about how she had unsuspectingly and blindly walked into the trap earlier today, which frustrated her even more and she kept walking towards the crack,

"Hey, that earlier was just an accident. And from now on, I'm not going to walk into any more..."

However, Judith failed to notice that the loose rope from the rope still wrapped around of her ankle had somehow wrapped itself around of the piece of ice.

How far about this unaware Judith managed to get, the rope suddenly tightened between of her leg and eventually and unexpectedly tripped her over on his snout and stomach to the ground.

"UGH! Traps." Judith muttered with the embarrassed and frustrated tone after realizing that she had managed to trip herself with the same blasted rope of that previous trap.

"Oh, C'mon. I think that you have had enough of this rope." The cub said and rushed to Judith's leg and cut the rope off with the sharp stone knife what the cub, surprisingly to Judith after she saw it, was wielding in his paws until he put it behind of his back and under of his fur shirt.

"You had a KNIFE?! You should have use it to release me from a trap instead of releasing the tensed tree from that stake and cause me to get all air to be punched out of me." Judith exclaimed as she stood up to sit.

"Sometimes I simply forget it to there and sometimes I remember that it is in there by accident." The cub said innocently and with the smug smile.

"So, what do you say?" The cub asked as he rushed to front of sitting Judith.

"So, are you sure that you can take me to the three-pointed Mountain, where the _Lights_ touch the earth?" Judith asked, still skeptical about the fox cub's honesty, which could possibly turn out to be just a trick.

"Well, if you want to go there, even though I have no idea that why you want to go there, which is probably "none-of-my-business" stuff, then yeah. No problem." The cub answered.

Judith considered this a bit again. The idea of traveling accompanied by the small, annoyingly and endlessly talkative fox didn't pleased her, but because she herself didn't knew that where such of mountain was - due to her being a new in middle of this new and strange part of these great woods - she found not alternative choice but to reluctantly accepted the fox as her guide.

It was hard to swallow her pride yet again, after realizing that the cub had gained the upper paw with the knowledge about the mountain's position and being the only one who was able - and willing - to help her. Out of frustration Judith raised her paw over of her head and run it down the side of her head and let out the small sigh.

And then, she turned back to the fox cub.

"If I find out that you're just cheating me or if you slow me down..." Judith started before she was interrupted by the fox cub.

"I won't, I promise, with the word of honor of the foxes." The cub said, nearly with the frustrated tone of voice.

Judith let yet another sigh, reluctantly swallowing all remains of her pride.

"All right, kid, you won. I'm coming with you. And we leave first thing tomorrow." Judith said as she turned her back to the cub and then she lied down to the ground.

It has been the long day for her and the night had already fell over the forest. And despite having the perfect night-vision and sensitive sense of hearing, there was no way that she would travel in the dark, and much less sleep outdoors due to Jill being still stalking her out there.

The cub let out the sigh of relief and the happy smile appeared on his face after Judith had let him to know that he had won.

However, The cub turned his eyes back to the ceiling of the cave and the fear and the concern of that bunny hunter suddenly appeared on his face.

So, to make himself to feel in safe and for Judith to feel herself more comfortable to sleep in here the cold ice cave, the cub quickly rushed next to Judith and took his hidden packed of stuff he had mostly "found" and pulled from there the fur blanket, which he placed over of Judith and himself as he as well lied down to the ground... snuggling Judith's back.

However, Judith, who was annoyed of this as well as of the entire presence of the cub, sat up and with her paw, Judith rudely pushed the cub far away from her and threw the blanket to him as well.

"Three facts, okay, kid?"

"First: I don't need you to feel any pity about me just because I'm sleeping in the cold cave without the warm blanket nor clothes, so keep your stolen stuff with yourself."

"Secondly: as long as you keep yourself quiet, there's no fear to be detected by that hunter out there. The cave is the safe enough so you can sleep the distance away from me..."

"And finally: I'm old enough to sleep without the stuffed cuddly animal under my armpit for the night, so keep all that cuddly fox stuff to a minimum, okay, kid?" Judith rudely demanded.

"Hey, that blanket isn't stolen. It's the gift, made and given by my mother. Besides, I am not stuffed animal and my name isn't "kid" My name is Nick." the fox cub, called Nick, said with the offended tone.

"Whatever." Judith said with "I-don-care-like" tone, turned her back again to Nick and settled back to lie down.

Also Nick was about to go to sleep, until one last question came into his mind.

"What's your name?"

Judith snorted in frustration but she knew that if she doesn't answer to that here and right now, that cub will never leave her alone with that question.

"Judith... but call me Judy if you want. Now go back to sleep!" Judith answered reluctantly and rudely, but Nick seemingly didn't either notice that or then he just simply, stubbornly but still surprising calmly ignored it.

"Okay, nice to meet you, Judy." Nick said before he settled back to lie down and snuggled in the ground in order to find the perfect and comfortable position before he eventually and finally went to sleep.

Judith remained awake for a moment, wondering that how she was ever gonna make this upcoming trip until the mountain the energetic, curious and endlessly talkative fox cub as her only accompany.

"It's gonna be a long day tomorrow." Judith muttered before she fell into the slumber as well.

 **To be continued...**

 **I hope you enjoyed of reading this chapter.**


	11. Chapter 11: Nightmare

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 11. NIGHTMARE  
**

 **ENJOY THE READING.**

The night went a quite peacefully.

And despite the threat of Jill with the spear and with the kill intentions, the foxes - or one fox and the bunny in the fox's skin - hiding out and sleeping in the ice cave were able to spend this night through without the concern about the possibility of them to be found.

And the air space was quiet upon the temporary residents of the cave.

However, it was not quite quiet.

Judy was whimpering in her sleep.

She was having the nightmare... or nightmares...

...about the past events... both traumatic and inexplicable.

 **Judy's nightmare**

In her nightmare, Judy found herself back in the peak of the mountain during her battle with the same fox in order to kill it out of revenge. However, this time, the peak was like a vertical tower-like glacier and Judy was there trying to desperately help her sister Jill from falling down to the hole in the ice, like she had done during of the first battle between of her, her father and her sister Jill and the large fox, after she had went after the beast after it had stolen her tribe's salmons, instead fighting the fox...

...and yet there was the very same thunderstorm raging over and around of the glacier-tower's peak.

There was a heavy rain...

...and the lightnings flashed all around of the peak.

Though Judy found herself confused that how in the earth two battle times with the very same fox had blend together as one, Judy quickly wiped that off her mind and focused to helping her sister out of the hole.

"Judy!" Judy heard Jill's in the air deeply echoing voice calling for her and calling for help.

"I got you, Jill! Hold on!" Judy said, with the similarly in the air deeply echoing voice.

Judy used all her strength to pull her big sister up from the hole, and Jill tried her best to climb out from the hole by trying to grab with her paw to the ice edge of the hole and find some foothold for her legs, so that she can push herself upwards with her legs.

However, the hole's ice edge's slippery and every foothold turning to be loosened from the ice wall made it far more difficult.

And in the background, Judy saw their father was fighting for his own dear life against the giant fox, who is a responsible for the salmon theft.

However, this time, the fox was a much bigger by its size and its appearance seemed to be less organic and more more Spiritual - or more likely demonic - looking like those Spiritual forms of the animals Judy had saw the last night among of the _Northern Lights_ back on that peak.

The fox had this time more extended and curved claws!

Its vicious eyes glowed the unnatural yellow light!

Its fur and bushy tail fluttered in the wind like flames, as if the fox was on the fire!

The fox's jaws was more thick this time and full of the nasty-looking sharp fangs!

And alike the fox's eyes, there was also the unnatural glow coming out from the fox's mouth.

While trying to save her sister, Judy peeked over her shoulder to witness this desperate fight between of her father and this demonic fox.

The demonic fox constantly swung its paw and its long claws at Stu, who did his best to dodge the monster's every attack with claws and tried to stab himself with his spear the fox monster, but the lethal stabbing strikes seemed to have no effect to the fox.

The lethal stabbing strikes only seemed to make the demonic fox even angrier rather than damaging it.

And angered for this, the demonic fox charged at Stu with all fours, drooling the yellow glowing spittle out of his mouth as the monster tried to snap its long and fanged jaws at Stu in order to grab the bunny between of them.

Using his natural rabbit speed and his legs intended for jumps, Stu tried his best to dodge the fox every attempt to have him between of the demonic fox's jaws, though the demonic fox himself used his own natural speed to keep up after Stu.

But on one attempt...

Stu managed to narrowly evade the fox monsters jaws, which the demonic fox was about to snap around Stu's neck into the deadly bite.

However, Stu wasn't quite fast enough, and one of the demonic fox's fangs managed to grab and pierce through of Stu's left ear.

Stu cried out in pain, which he strongly felt his left ear like it was in fire.

And such of cry out in pain echoed through the air to Judy's ears.

Judy peeked over her shoulder and witnessed, much to her horror, as the demonic fox jumped on his hind legs and lifted her father from his left ear from the ground, turned around on his feet and smashed roughly Stu to the ground, releasing his ear from his mouth.

The rough impact against the ground pushed all air out of Stu, causing the old bunny to pant heavily, as he tried hardy to get up from the ground.

The demonic fox used this as its advantage and lunged towards Stu...

...while Judy was still witnessing this while trying to pull Jill up from the hole.

"FATHER! NO!" Judy cried in horror and agony...

...as the demonic fox pinned Stu forcibly down as the bunny chieftain of the Bunnyburrow tribe tried one last time to make stand against the fox monster, which was all in vain after he was pinned down against the glacier's ice.

And then, the fox attacked to Stu and snapped his jaws and fangs around of Stu's neck.

While savagely mutilating Stu with its claws, the demonic fox shook savagely and in the lust for blood his head and Stu along with it like rag doll, during of which, the fox monster squeezed its jaws harder together that its fangs dug into Stu's neck, ripping Stu's necks jugular and breaking his neck at the process... killing him.

Judy couldn't bring herself to watch this bloody and horrible sight - though she was unable to watch clearly as the demonic fox killed her and Jill's father thanks to the small ice mounds in the glacier blocking most of the sight - and Judy turned back to helping her sister.

Judy did her best and pulled with all the bunny strength she got to get her sister up and out from the hole in the ice, and Jill tried to ease Judy's progress trying by climbing to pull herself up from the hole, which wasn't easy, because of the hole's ice wall's extra-slippery thanks to the raining water.

However, with the hard efforts, Judy eventually managed to pull Jill partially up from the hole, so that she herself was able to get up on her knees and to witness over her shoulder that what was going on in the background.

Meanwhile, after the demonic fox had done with Stu, the beast lifted his head, Stu's blood-covered, savagely mutilated and lifeless body still in his jaws, upwards and tossed the bunny chieftain's lifeless body aside.

Stu's body slipped along the wet and slippy icy surface of the peak towards the edge of the peak, until he narrowly stopped right to the next to the edge, remaining to lie to there motionlessly.

However, the demonic fox wasn't after all done with Stu yet.

The demonic fox then spit out of his mouth the some kind of hot and lava-like glowing liquid, surrounding the whole area of the edge on which Stu was lying motionlessly. And once the liquid made contact with the ice surface, with the hissing sound melted its way inside the ice, threatening to separate the edge off the rest of the peak.

On its way, the liquid's heat caused the edge's ice to crack threateningly...

...until it eventually caused the entire ice edge to get loose off the peak and collapse in pieces to the storm clouds covered abysses beneath of the peak, taking Stu's body with the collapsing edge.

"NOOOOOO!" Heard the scream in agony.

Both the bunny girls watched in horror, as they father's body fell down and eventually disappeared to the storm clouds beneath of the peak with the ice pieces of the collapsed edge.

"No! This can't be happening! Not again! NOT AGAIN!" Judy screamed tearfully and in inner agony, as she was once again witnessing her fathers death.

However, her scream was the one which caught the demonic fox's attention.

And as a result, the demonic fox spit the same liquid to the ice floor of the peak, of which heat caused the ice to melt beneath of the glowing liquid and which eventually released the molten ice water to flood over the peak's icy surface and which headed towards the bunny girls.

The flood of molten ice water caught the bunny girls off guard and took them with it.

The girls tried to fight back the flow by trying to take the support with their feet from the ice surface of the peak, but the flow was too strong for them and they were unable to get any supporting spot from the peak's ice surface with their feet due to the ice's slippery...

...and despite the fact that the flood subsided quickly, they were still slipping along the extremely wet from the flood and the rain water and thus slippery ice surface of the peak, and they were heading straight towards the peaks edge...

...AND JILL WAS CAUGHT BY THE POST FLOES OF THE FLOOD!

"JUDITH!" Jill screamed for help, as she tried desperately and nearly in panic to grab from something with her paws to prevent herself to be taken by the flow.

"JILL!" Judy shouted, and using the slippery of the ice surface of the peak as her advantage, Judy leaped herself against the icy surface and allowed herself to slip along it, so that she could reach to Jill before she would slip over the edge of the peak and fall to the abysses just like their father did.

And the demonic fox started to follow them, barking with the lust for blood!

After seeing this, as well as Stu's spear floating along the post flows pass of her, Judy grabbed the spear into her paw and increased her slipping speed after Jill.

"HOLD ON, JILL! I'M COMING!" Judy cried to her sister.

And as Jill was about to slip over the edge of the peak...

...Judy did one long leap forwards and landed on her back to the ice surface, though she originally planned to land on her belly to the ice surface, and as a result she slipped even faster towards her sister.

And once she was close her, as well as they were both close the ice peak's edge, Judy stretched her spear wielding paw forward as further as she was able.

"JILL! GRAB TO THE SPEAR! QUICK!" Judy cried to her sister.

Jill did her best to try to pull herself closer to the end of the staff, though thanks to the water and the slippery surface of the ice made it more difficult.

And eventually, she slipped over the edge and was about to fall to abysses!

"GRAB TO IT, GRAB TO IT, GRAB TO IT, JILL!" Judy cried hurriedly.

Jill hurriedly did as Judy told her to do and eventually managed to grab from the spear.

However, Judy just realized that there was nothing for her to grab on to prevent both her and Jill from falling into the abysses to their deaths.

Judy desperately, though apparently in vain and too late, hoped that her slipping would either slow down or stop completely before they will fall over the edge and into the abysses.

Well, she actually got what she wanted... but not by the way she hoped.

The demonic fox leaped over the air towards Judy and had managed to pin her down right before Judy managed to slip over the edge to the abysses.

However, the fox had landed over Judy with all its weight, which had made Judy to loudly gasp in pain...

...which caused her to lose her grip from the spear...

...and because the spear's center of gravity was in the other side of the spear's log handle, where Jill was, Jill's weight pulled the spear out of Judy's reach!

"JUDIIIIIIIIIITH!" Jill cried as she fell down to the abysses and quickly disappeared to the storm clouds.

"JILL! NOOOOOO!" Judy cried with the disbelief that she had now lost Jill too!

Due to her sorrow, Judy kind of hallucinated her sister's paw still hanging from the edge and desperately stretched her paw towards the edge like trying to one last time to reach to her sister's paw and help her up.

However, she soon realized that her sister was not there.

And the tears of losing her father and sister filled her eyes.

"No, no, no, no, no, no..." Judy mourned.

Until the small drop of yellow glowing spittle landed on her right cheek, which impact snapped her out of her sorrow.

Judy's heart was filled with the sorrow and agony, but knowing that thanks to whom she had lost both of her father and sister, Judy's teary expression on her face turned into burning glare out of pure anger, as she turned her angry look at the fox.

The demonic fox snarled at her as it glared at her with its unnatural glowing eyes.

Luckily, Judy had the knife with her, which she quickly pulled out and swung with it at the demonic fox's faces, hoping to cause some damage in revenge for her father and her sister's deaths.

The fox reacted this quickly and pulled - or more likely jumped - itself back before the knife managed to hit its faces, though it tore the most of Judy's shirt with its paw's, which was pinning Judy against the ground, claws and leaving four long bleeding cuts to her body... causing Judy to gasp in pain, as she felt the long claws of this demonic fox cutting her flesh.

The demonic fox, however, did not stay away from Judy for long...

...before the demonic fox angrily barking lunged again towards Judy, targeting its jaws and fangs towards her neck, as the bleeding bunny lied on her side in the ground, helding with her paws the cuts the fox caused to her with its blasted claws.

However, Judy managed to notice the fox incoming in time, and threw herself on her back to the ground.

"EAT MY FEET, YOU FLEA-COAT!" Judy cursed and leaned backwards like she was about to make the somersault in half-way, coiled her legs back before she extended them quickly forwards and towards at her lunging fox as the demonic beast was in a extremely small distance away from her.

Judy's double kick hit to its target, in middle of the demonic fox's faces with all strength she got.

The demonic fox let out the loud yelp and pulled itself back to shook and stroke with its paws his head after the impact of Judy's kick.

Now when the demonic fox attention was completely away from her, Judy hurriedly get up on her feet and rushed towards the fox... lifting her knife holding paw upwards and get herself ready to deliver to the fox the killing strike to its head.

However, the demonic fox quickly recovered from the impact...

...and after spotting the angry bunny coming straight towards it with her knife lifted up over her head for the killing strike, targeted to its faces...

...the demonic fox jumped on its legs, turned around and swung its right clawed paw towards Judy's right cheek.

"AAH!" Judy gasped in burning pain...

...as the demonic fox's claws hit to her right cheek and left three over her face crossing and bleeding claw marks to her faces.

And the impact of the demonic fox clawed paw's strike against her head was powerful enough to send her to fly over the air like the rag doll, causing her make on the way the rough somersaults in the air...

...before she roughly landed to the slippy ice surface on the peak and slipped fast towards the edge of the ice peak, and with the speed, which was useless to hope to stop before it would throw her over the edge and to the abyss beneath of the ice peak just like with her sister and father.

Even though from the cuts in her face bleeding blood - which Judy completely believed to be mere water rain - in her face covered her eyes, bothering her view, Judy was able to see the fox coming faster straight towards her, glaring at her with its menacingly glowing eyes, barking angrily ans drooling its glowing liquid out ot its mouth...

...and the demonic fox seemed to even increase its own size as it kept approaching her fast, faster than she herself was even slipping along the slippy ice surface of the peak.

And when the demonic fox was close enough her, the fox did its very final leap towards her face and opened its fanged and bloody mouth to snap her head between of them and into the deadly squeezing bite, which could crush her skull!

"NOOOO!" Judy let out the cry of despair, as she covered with her bloody arms her bloody faces as her last desperate attempt to save herself from the such of terrible and painful way to die.

However, she soon felt nothing beneath of herself...

...and the demonic fox's jaws snapped together Just a millimeter away from her tiny nose, missing her head.

Though Judy thought that she was able to sigh in relief... the situation in which she realized herself to be at the moment was far away from the relief.

Judy realized that she had fell over the edge of the icy peak!

And now, she was freely falling downwards towards the abysses beneath of the icy peak and the dark thunderclouds, leaving for losing its prey angered demonic fox to the peak to bark after her falling form.

However, though Judy had survived from the fox jaws... she knew that what kind of another and either less or more painful fate was waiting for her down in the end of her free fall down.

"NOOOOOO!" Judy let out the cry to the stormy air, as she fell through of the pouring rain and the bright lighting sky...

...and she eventually disappeared among to the dark storm clouds.

And everything turned dark in her eyes.

But it did not lasted for long.

Even though the darkness obscured her eyes, she eventually found herself slowly opening her sleepy-like eyes like she had fallen out to sleep but did not remembered her to fallen to sleep.

Judy rubbed her eyes with her paws to get her view more better.

And when she managed to have more better view, Judy looked around of her to check and find out that where she was.

She was in middle of the forest... forest which looked a very familiar like the forest where she had got herself into the trap for the entire day and where she had unwillingly met that annoying little non-stop talking fox.

However, this time, the forest had far more creepier appearance.

The forest looked like it was haunted.

The day over the forest was cloudy and unpleasantly dark and gloomy.

The trees were leafless, hollow and dark, nearly dead-looking trunks, and their breaches were like the wooden arms, which were about to grab to her.

And the holes in the hollow trees made the trees look like like they had the faces, staring still lifelessly but still threateningly at her from everywhere.

And there was unnatural fog floating in between of the trees, giving to the tree's far more horrible expression.

And in the air was heard many kind of sounds, such like...

...the shivers and goosebumps giving screeching of the dark-black crows...

...and the howling of the wolves...

...the owls hooting...

...shaking of the bushes leaves like there was someone moving unseen among of the bushes...

...deep and menacing growling...

...and along with all of them, even more shivers and goosebumps giving insane laughter, which seemed to come out from the trees.

All of them together really gave to Judy both shivers and goosebumps.

With all those noses, Judy started to believe that he was being watched... stalked... by someone hiding in the darkness.

Judy then looked at herself to check her status... only to realize that instead of her bunny form, she was somehow once again stuck in her fox skin, much to her great ailment, as it troubled her to be once again like the prisoner in the fox skin with no way to escape.

However, she also realized that despite being somehow turned from bunny back to the fox, she found that that demonic fox painful, flesh-cutting and still bleeding claw marks in her chest and in her faces... as well as herself covered by the blood... much of blood... her own blood... causing her to gasp in panic that she nearly got the heart attack.

Judy had not probably noticed her own blood bleeding out of her cuts to her fur during of her fight with the fox... probably because the pouring rain back in the icy peak had washed it off her fur... until now.

"RUN!" Judy suddenly heard the familiar voice shouting at her with the urging and warning tone to her behind of her.

Judy turned around to see the source of the voice... seeing the same fox cub running urgently away from the scene...

...before the fox cub disappeared behind of the rocks, bushes and trees.

Judy looked to the fox cub's going direction with the annoyed yet sarcastic expression on her face.

"Yeah, sure." Judy said sarcastically.

And then, Judy's sharp sense of hearing caught the sound of under of the step and step's owner's weight snapping stick right behind of her, which caught her attention and got her to turn around to see that who was behind of her.

And after seeing the causer of the sound, Judy gasped in shock.

Behind of her was standing the shadowy figure with the pair of threateningly glowing eyes, who started to approach her immediately after Judy saw it... and the figure approached her quickly and threateningly.

But as the figure came even closer, Judy was able to distinguish from the shadowy figure the clear features relating to the rabbit... making it clear that the shadowy figure was the rabbit, with quite threatening- and with a quite creepy-looking appearance.

The figure then took or formed out of nowhere from the fog the spear into its paws and started to raise it above of its head for the killing blow.

Judy gasped in shock as she realized what the figure was about to do.

But, as the figure came closer, Judy started to slowly recognize this shadowy figure.

While having the demonic horn-like ears, unnaturally gloving eyes and the mouth ful of the demonic-like fangs and the demonic-like tongue, the figure had a very familiar tuft of hair on top of her head like her sister and yet her movements in holding and raising the spear above of its head for the killing blow seemed to be very familiar to her from the last night...

...that Judy was more than just convinced about the fact that who the shadowy figure was.

"JILL?!" Judy whispered loudly in horror.

However, Jill's shadowy and demonic-like form did not responded to this.

Instead, she looked at Judy with the very same hateful and yet vengeful hate as Jill did back then after she had get down from the humiliating trap - with the quite painful help from that fox cub - and after Jill had found her

And then, she attacked her with her spear, letting out the deep demon-like roar out of her fanged mouth.

Like Judy did back then, she hurriedly tried to get up on her feet and ran for her life away from her murderous-like sister... again.

But, however, as she tried to leap forward to her all fours, she was suddenly tackled by something, which caused her to royghly land on her belly to the ground.

And as Judy tried hurriedly to get up on her feet, she found out that she was unable to even move her legs!

And so, she turned around to see that why she was unable to move her legs...

...to find out that two nearby trees had "short of" grabbed from her legs with their wooden long-fingered arm-like roots, which prevented her from escaping from her sister, by squeezing their grips painfully around of her shins and pulling her forcibly back, no matter how hard Judy tried to pull herself forwards with all her strength and the support of her claws.

"WHAT IS THIS?!" Judy screamed in panic, as the trees laughed devilishly while pulling her back and as shadowy Jill was approaching her holding her spear over her head, ready for the killing blow.

"JILL! NO!" Judy pleaded in panic.

However, Jill's demonic form didn't care.

" _DIE, FOX! FOR MY FATHER AND FOR JUDITH!_ " Jill bellowed, but not with her normal voice, but rather with the deep and demonic like voice.

And then, Jill pulled her spear lightly backwards, preparing to strike Judy with her spear, before she eventually swung the spear's pointed rock tip towards Judy!

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Judy screamed, as she covered her face with her arms and waited for Jill's spear's rocky tip to dig its way into her flesh and her heart!

 **End of the nightmare.**

"NO!" Judy screamed as she snapped out of her slumber and jumped into sitting position from the ground.

Extremely sweaty Judy panted rapidly and in panic after such of nightmarish dream ever.

And almost immediately, Judy started hurriedly to check herself in order to make sure that this was reality and not the dream.

"No blood?!"

"Not claw marks?!"

"Not stabbing wound?!"

"Not grabbing roots?!"

"Not insane laughter?!"

"Am I dead?!"

"Am I dead?!"

"Am I dead?!"

Judy found out that instead of the dark, uncomfortable, gloomy and creepy forest with full of the creepy-faced trees and shivers giving sounds and insane laughter, she was still in the same ice cave she and that fox cub had stayed for a night and in safe from the real Jill still stalking her outside of the cave.

However, Judy also found out that was still stuck in her fox form, but at least undamaged fox form, which was one good reason to sigh in relief.

"No, I'm not dead. I'm alive." Judy sighed in relief and relaxed, calming down her rapid breathing and fell in her back to the ground.

Judy indeed was extremely relieved that it was all just a stupid nightmare of the last events with the foxes.

Even though... those events indeed left their traumatic marks at Judy.

However, not sleepy anymore, Judy climbed up on her feet and looked around of the cave...

...only to notice that the fox cub was gone, but had instead left behind the clothes the fox cub had offered to her the last night.

And though Judy had rejected the cub's offer, with the belief that the clothes were stolen, this with the wind into the cave flowed cold morning air caused her to have both the shivers and goosebumps along with the already cold air inside of the cave thanks to the glacier.

So, Judy decided to give up her pride that much, which would allow her to pick those clothes the fox cub offered to her and dress up into them.

Golden-brown bear-fur-dress indeed warmed her enough to get along with the cold.

And once she had dressed, Judy then started to look for the fox cub with his eyes.

Still no sight of the fox cub.

And because this was the large tunnel-like cave, Judy started to think that the cub had either wandered to check the ice caverns from more deeper.

Judy sighed in annoyance, knowing that now she was forced to find that fox cup by the style of the hide-and-seek game.

But she had no choice than just to go, because the fox cub had claimed to know the way to the tree-pointed mountain, where she would be able to turn from the fox skin back to the bunny.

"Hello? Kid? Come out, we have to go now. Kid? I already told you that we leave first thing tomorrow once we wake up. And I have no time to play hide-and-seek game with you, so come out where ever you are." Judy called the fox cup as she started to walk towards deeper into the cave.

And it was a quite long way to walk into deeper of the cave beneath of the glacier.

And the deeper she went, the daylight through the glacier's ice began to weaken and it went darker.

And the surface of the molten ice water creek started to raise, reaching now to in the middle of her thighs.

And no sight of the fox cub.

Judy alerted her excellent sense of hearing to catch even a single silent sound of the step or the fox talkative speaking.

But much to her surprise, there was not even a single sound of the one single step... nor any in the cave's air space echoing words of that talkative fox.

"Hey, kid! Did you heard me! I got a three-pointed mountain to catch, and I have no time to play some stupid and childish hide-and-seek game! So you better to come out from where ever you are, so that we can get on the move!" Judy called loudly.

But because Judy's eyes were in forward as he kept calling the fox cup and the ground was covered by the molten ice water, she didn't noticed that she was walking straight towards the small boulder underwater and straight in front of her... until she then unexpectedly hit her knee to it.

"OUCH! WHAT THE...!" Judy screamed in pain, as the impact between of her knee and the boulder caused her to lean too sharply forward, and giving her trouble to stay in balance.

And because the impact was quite hard that the pain wave in her knee caused Judy to feel that her knee was in fire, she ended up to jump with one of her legs rapidly forward.

But during of which, she did not looked forward of her and immediately knocked her head to the large icicle.

"OUCH!" Judy screamed again out of pain from the impact.

The impact with the large icicle also tackled her and caused her to fly on her back to the stone-hard bottom of the molten ice water creek.

"Oh sweet cheese and crackers!" Wet and battered Judy "cursed" as she, stroking her aching forehead and her still in pain burning knee, as she slowly and carefully got up on her feet from the molten ice water creek.

Judy at fist hopped to all her fours and started to shake herself to get the most of the water off her fur, before she was about to grab to one of her ears and squeeze it to dry off the water... only to realize that she wasn't bunny anymore, because she had her pointed fox ears instead of her own long bunny ears.

"Oh sweet cheese and crackers with this fox form! Oh sweet cheese and crackers with that fox kid! AND ONE MORE TIME OH SWEET CHEESE AND CRACKERS WITH EVERYTHING OF THIS SUFFER IN THIS HIDEOUS FORM!" Judy screamed out of the pure frustration.

"Ugh, now I'm SO urged to give that fox the REALLY hard whacking!" Judy said, as she kept moving forward, though this time a bit limping.

And the deeper he went on the cave, all went even darker - and colder - and the water surface started to reach to her armpits.

And still no sight of that fox cub.

Judy could not believe that was he forced to continue even deeper of the cave after that fox cub, until the molten ice water came up to the ceiling of the cave, which would eventually prevent her from keep moving forward.

However, as the water started to reach to her neck, she finally arrived to the end of the cave, which, much to her annoyance and frustration, led only to the dead end.

Now Judy grow even more annoyed and frustrated that she had went all of this way after that fox cub all for nothing!

"Oh sweet cheese and crack...!" Judy was about to "curse" again, until she soon noticed the another ice tunnel next to the dead end...

...and judging from the dim light, which slightly illuminated the tunnel ice walls - telling to Judy that the ice layer between the ice tunnel and the open air was thinner and the translucent light was able to burst through of the ice - Judy believed that this way was leading straight to the surface and out of the glacier.

And believing, that if the fox cub had indeed wandered off to look at the ice cavern, he had with the one hundred percent went through of that tunnel.

And so, Judy went herself to follow that tunnel, hoping to be right that it would lead her to the surface and out of the glacier.

While following the tunnel, Judy found out two things, one good and one bad.

Good thing was that what the deeper she went, the light started to get even more brighter than ever, making Judy to think that was it either dawn or midday.

And the bad thing was that the deeper she went, the tunnel began to narrow and narrow even more, leaving her as much space so that he was able to continue along the tunnel only in the sideways position.

"Hopefully this does not end up to another dead end and to another "Oh sweet cheese and crackers", or else I'm really gonna give that fox the really hard whacking once I found him." Judy muttered to herself as she kept moving forward along the narrow tunnel.

 **To be continue...**

 **I hope you enjoyed of reading this chapter.**


	12. Chapter 12: At the Dawn

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 12. AT THE DAWN  
**

 **ENJOY THE READING.**

Meanwhile, outside of the cave.

The night had indeed turned to the fresh dawn like yesterday morning.

The sun has risen from beyond the horizon and filled the forest and night sky with the fresh light of the dawn.

And the air was once again filled with the birds morning song and with the fresh scent of the coniferous tree.

And a small distance away from the glacier and the cave, where Judy and the fox cub had stayed for the night, the same moose Pronk and Bucky were standing nearby in the border of the forest.

Both of them were a bit sleepy, but their sleepiness turned quickly after several yawns into cheery mood.

"YAWN! Good day, bro." Bucky wished to his brother Pronk.

"Good day you too. How's it going, eh?" Pronk asked from his brother.

"Beauty." Both of them answered to each others one by one.

And after the response, Pronk fell immediately down to his all fours and started to scratch his mane with one of his hind leg, before he shook his mane really hard to get rid of the deer flies, which annoyed him more often with their tickling.

"Oh, by the way. I think that we got a lot a work to get done today, eh? You want to get started while its still fresh?" Bucky asked as he was about to turn away to go to, what he called "work".

"Yeah, just give me one sec, eh?" Pronk asked.

After hearing this, Bucky took the annoyed expression to his faces.

"Not again! That's a five millionth time, bro!" Bucky complained, very annoyed, because Pronk had the habit to do this very same morning stretching every morning, and it started to piss him off.

"In fact, technically twenty-nine thousandth and nine hundredth time during the thirty years of our life, bro." Pronk corrected, stating that he had done this every morning since his time as a small and a young moose calf.

Bucky did not seem to be very impressed of this knowledge, because he has got to know about it ... for thirty years.

"Whatever, but... do you really have to do this now?" Bucky asked with annoyance.

"You know that I have many stiff spots after each night. I just can't get rid of it. If I don't get rid of them by stretching my limbs, they will ache later. So I gotta get them on work... which cannot be done without a good morning stretching." Pronk explained, as he at the same time cracked his neck to both sides and bent his arms to shake off the stiff spots from them.

"So, one-five sec, if you please?"

Bucky sighed deeply in defeat.

"Okay." He muttered in annoyance and made space for his brother.

Pronk then pulled a deep breath and fell yet again to his all fours.

And then Pronk began to bend his hind legs backwards in the arc... so far as he was able to bend them, and there was hearing the snapping and cracking sounds in his legs when he did so.

"Woo-oo-hoo!" Pronk let out while feeling the cracks during of bending his hind legs.

But Pronk did not went back to his normal position and lifted his head towards his brother.

"Will ya help me to crack my back, if you please?" Pronk requested, nodding with his head and right antler his back.

Bucky snorted in annoyance, but he however went to her brother side.

"Alright, alright." Bucky said.

And with the quick pull with his left antler to downwards and against his brother's back, Bucky bent his brother's spin downwards, which was followed a quite loud and rough-sounding crack.

"OH, yeah! Thanks, that helped. I truly hate stiff backs." Pronk stated, as he climbed on his feet.

"Alright, alright. Are you done now?" Bucky asked, annoyed and a bit frustrated, which he tried to keep under his control and he tried to keep himself cool.

However...

"Almost." Pronk responded.

"Ah, c'mon." Bucky muttered in annoyance, as his brother fell once again to all fours and pulled a deep breath yet again.

"Okay, here we go. Just wanna to do... "dog facing forward!" Pronk said as he made a quite rough-looking back-bend to shed off the last stiff spots.

Bucky started to seriously give up to his frustration.

"Oh, c'mon! Isn't that already enough, bro?" Bucky said, really frustrated.

Pronk kept himself in the back-pent position four seconds, before he finally jumped on his feet.

"Okay, good. No more stiff spots nor aches. I'm ready, bro. Now we can start." Pronk stated.

This information brought the smile to Bucky's face.

"Shall we start with these. They're both green, fresh and thus tasteful." Bucky suggested, pointing with his hoofed finger at the grass beneath of them.

"Yeah, why not?" Pronk agreed.

"Ready?" Bucky said like in the challenging tone.

"Ready." Pronk said, confirming to be ready.

"Aaaaaaand... GO!"

And within the seconds, the moose were munching the fresh and tasteful gross in the next of them.

"Hmm! This is a nice and tasteful patch here." Bucky reported to his brother, with his mouth full of the munched grass and with the pleased smile, before he kept eating the gross.

However, Pronk wasn't as pleased as his brother, as he coiled his faces and nose like he had just got the some kind of bad taste into his mouth.

He barely managed to fight back the urge to spit or even vomit the munched grass out of his mouth, but he through of difficulty managed to swallow it, though it left the bad taste to his mouth.

"Oh, jeez! You got lucky with your choice, bro. Very lucky. But whatever you do, don't go near this patch here. I think that someone has been here and peed to this grass. Watta spoiling of the good grass!" Pronk complained and went to look better spot to continue his breakfast and get the bad taste out of his mouth.

"You're telling me, bro." Bucky responded as he kept eating.

 **Nearby**

While Bucky and Pronk were feasting their breakfast with the grass, they failed to see that on the glacier's groove and in the middle of the molten ice water creeks was walking the hunter...

...bunny hunter.

It was Jill.

Jill had spent the whole night checking the entire glacier's region and nearby forests... so that she could find even some traces the fox, whose she was hunting so fiercely to avenge her sister's "death", had carelessly left behind.

However, she had found nothing from the glacier's region nor in the nearby forests, meaning that she had searched the whole night the entire area for nothing.

Jill started to say to herself that what so that what she would give for even a single trace of fox, which could lead her to the right way and help her to follow her prey and eventually kill it in revenge.

However, Jill was far away from the idea of giving up and forgetting the whole mission to hunt down the fox responsible for her sister's death, Because through it she wouldn't only get her revenge against the fox but also honor Judy by setting spirit to rest in peace.

And that's why her stubbornness, lust for revenge and sister-love towards Judy had eventually led her through of her night-lasted search to the glacier's molten ice water creeks filled glacier's groove...

And there, Jill's nose caught the familiar scent.

And to confirm her doubts about the scent's source, Jill leaned down and poured some water into her paw and raised it next to her nose and sniffed it.

And then, her expression turned into harder.

"You!" Jill muttered with the venom in her voice, relieved that her the whole night-lasted search wasn't all for nothing after all.

Jill then threw the water off her paw and followed the scent with her nose, which was taking her straight towards the narrow entrance of the ice cave in the glacier.

Once Jill arrived to the entrance, she remained to the outside for a moment and sniffed the air.

And there, her nose caught the familiar scent again.

"Very sly from you to hide in there from me... but you have run out of luck!" Jill said with the venomous tone.

Slowly but certainly...

...as silent as mouse...

...with all her senses in full alert...

...keeping her spear aimed forwards in battle station...

...and following the technique: take a peek first, then move forward...

...Jill entered to the ice cave and started to walk forward the icy tunnel, following the scent with her nose, keeping her eyes all the time forward and even keeping her ears - as well as her excellent sense of hearing - in full alert for any even so silent movement or the careless step in the water.

From most of them all, the scent was strong, confirming Jill that her target was there.

But even though Jill moved even deeper of the cave, she did not heard any kind of sound coming from the going direction... no step into the water and not even the silent growling.

But still, the source of scent was close...

...really close.

Finally, following the scent deeper to the cave, Jill arrived to the corner, behind of which was another large ice cave... and the scent became stronger... just like the scent was coming from around the corner.

But the scent getting even stronger was enough to confirm to Jill that her prey was around the corner.

And believing that the only entrance out of the cave was blocked by her...

...the wide, yet quite dark, grin appeared to Jill's lips, with one hundred percent sure of the fact that he had finally caught the fox to the trap... with no way to escape from her reach, or from her spear, now.

However, now when she was stalking and about to make the quick surprise attack on the predator, which happened to be the fox and the foxes were her species natural and mortal enemies...

...and even worse, cornered animal... and yet cornered fox..., who would not hesitate to attack anybody in sight in self-defense and in order to get out of the trap, thus making the cornered predators even more harder to kill...

...Jill prepared to give everything she got to slay the fox and avenge her sister.

Jill pressed herself against the ice wall, breathed calmly and looked at Judy's totem - the Fox of Friendship - in her spear.

"For you, baby sister." Jill whispered.

Jill then took the deep breath...

...and leaped out from behind the corner!

"CATCH YA!" Jill shouted and prepared to stab with her spear anything, which dared to attack her.

However, Jill's ears jumped upwards, remaining vertical above of her head, and her eyes widened in confusion.

There was no one in the ice cave.

 **Meanwhile**

Judy kept moving in the sideways position through of the narrow tunnel...

...until she finally seemed to reach to the tunnel's end.

And this time, instead of another dead end, this tunnel led indeed to the narrow crack in the glacier's ice wall.

And once Judy finally got out from the tunnels, she almost instantly covered her eyes with her paws once she stepped into the bright sunlight, which greatly bothered her eyes... after walking in the dark tunnel beneath of the glacier.

But once her eyes eventually get used to the daylight, Judy looked around of her.

She then found out that she had got to the open field area in the next to the glacier's ice wall.

Judy pulled her lungs full of the fresh morning air, before she started to look around of her, trying to find the fox cub with her eyes.

"Now, to where that blasted kid now went? He promised to me - or at least said he promised with the foxes so-called "honor" - to take me to that three-pointed mountain- he claimed to be in the next of this stupid place called Foxtopia. So where is he?" Judy asked from herself...

...as she wandered a bit away from the glacier wall, having had enough of the glaciers for a while after her first fight with the fox and her nightmare, until she was standing in the next of the large wall-like piece of the ice, where she stopped for a moment.

"C'mon! Where did you went? There is no one here." Judy said in annoyance and frustration...

...but she failed to see that behind of her, to the ice wall appeared the translucent reflection of the creature with the red fur, long snout and pointed ears - with the large head and extremely thin body.

This "creature in the ice" eyes Judy - who was completely unaware about the fact that she was watched from behind - for a moment for five seconds, before...

"Ahh!" The "creature" said, as it opened its mouth, revealing the fangs and other sharp canine teeth in its mouth.

"Huh?! What was that?" Judy asked with the alerted tone, sensing with her excellent sense of hearing that somebody was behind of her.

Judy quickly turned her head backwards to see that who and what was watching her.

And her eyes widened in shock as she saw the "creature" behind of her, staring down at her with the mouth opened wide and all those sharp canine fangs and teeth bared at her.

" _BUUUUUUUUUURP!_ " The "creature" let out the mighty burp, which Judy however believed immediately as the mighty roar and, of course...

"EEEEEEEEEEK!" Judy reacted to this with the loud scream of fear and shock - due to her traumatic marks of her nightmare and her encounter's with the foxes - which caused her to jump dramatically backwards and crawl along the ground away from the ""creature in the ice".

"NO MORE FOXES! NO MORE FOXES! NO MORE FOXES! GO WAY AND LEAVE ME ALONE!" Judy screamed dramatically and she crawled away from the "creature in the ice".

However...

This was soon followed by the a bit teasing laughter, coming from behind of the ice piece.

"Wha...?" Judy said, confused by that laughter.

However, she soon found out that what was really going on.

The "creature in the ice" seemed to laugh along with the teasing laughter... and yet the "creature in the ice" seemed to be incoming out from behind of the ice peace, still laughing heartily at this a recent moment.

Until the, "creature in the ice" finally came out from behind of the corner... revealing himself as still laughing Nick.

"UGH! Of course! Translucent reflection! I should have guessed!" Judy muttered/growled, even more annoyed and frustrated... even out of embarrassment by the fact that she had so easily fell as victim to translucent reflection of tiny fox cub reflecting through the ice.

"Oh sweet cheese and crackers... lucky than none from home wasn't in presence to see that." Judy muttered our to pure embarrassment and not wanting to anybody know that she was frightened of the translucent reflection of the fox.

However, Nick was in the presence, and the fox cub had already saw her dramatic react to his surprise act and saw her embarrassed faces.

"Oh, c'mon, Judy. We're you really scared of that one harmless joke?" Nick asked innocently, which annoyed and frustrated Judy even more.

"You nearly cause to me the heart attack!" Judy said sternly back with the pointing and blaming finger...

...until she just realized that she had nearly answered to the cub's question with the positive answer.

"Oh! I meant... uh... eh... uh... Well, I... uh, eh... wha-what are you talking about? Me-me? Scared of that? No! No! Absolutely not! I didn't! I was just kidding! Yeah! Just a kidding! Nothing else! I knew that it was you! I knew that it was just a mere translucent reflection!" I knew! I did!" Judy said dramatically with the numerous of excuses...

...which seemed to have no effect to Nick, who just smirked while rolling his eyes for Judy's quite poor excuses.

"Yeah, you did. And what was then that screaming a moment ago? Was it the eagle's screeching?" Nick said, quite sarcastically.

"But hey! The reflections against the reflecting and ice are funny. I used to do them with my bear friend Koda and his big brother Kenai. They always creates the funny-formed reflections." Nick said, though Judy wasn't even interested of this.

"For example, look at this!" Nick urged as he jumped behind of the one big ice boulder.

"Stand upright ... and you are skinny." Nick said, as he stood upright behind of the ice boulder, and the ice created his translucent reflection the extremely skinny.

"You see?" Nick said, before he pressed himself into the squat, allowing the ice to change the form of his translucent reflection into more ball like.

"And when you press yourself into the squat, you're fat. Got it?" Nick said.

Nick started doing this over again and again...

...alternately standing upright and pressing himself down into the squat... making his translucent reflection to change its form against the ice from the skinny to fat and so on...

"Skinny... and fat."

"Skinny... and fat."

"Skinny... and fat."

"Skinny... and fat."

"Skinny... and fat."

"And one more time, skinny... and yet fat." Nick laughed, repeating this over and over again...

...much to Judy's annoyance.

Judy snorted in annoyance and shook her head for the fox cub's childish behavior despite his nearly teen-like age.

"Hey, I got now time to follow this stupid reflection games." Judy said quite rudely.

"In case if you did forget, I already told you that we leave first thing tomorrow once we wake up, and now you have wasted enough of my time by disappearing and playing such of stupid games of yours." Judy added with the rude tone, openly blaming at Nick for wasting "her" time.

"... and I got the three-pointed Mountain to catch, so let's go kid." Judy finished.

Nick immediately stopped what he was doing, and took the very offended expression to his faces... as the young and energetic fox cub jumped on the ice bolder.

"Two facts, Mrs. Cranky. Okay?" Nick said, mimicking the words Judy had rudely said to him the last night.

"First: I'm not the one who wasted anyone's time, and I didn't forget that we were supposed to leave first thing tomorrow once we wake up. I was first awake already before dawn. Or, quite literally, I could hardly sleep most of the night, as you endlessly whimpered up in it so loudly through the entire night just as if you had nightmares, if you remember? Besides, you were the one in here who wasted your own time by oversleeping in the cave, and I just went here to have some fresh air and to wait for you waking up." Nick said seriously...

...though Judy only rudely passed the fox cub, rolling her eyes, like she wasn't interested that what facts Nick had against her.

"And secondly: I told you before, that my name is not kid but Nick. You got it? Nick, Nicholas or Nicky." Nick reminded Judy with the offended tone that Judy had called him once again with the nickname "Kid."

"And in case that you will remember it, say it with me... NI~ICK or NI~ICKY." Nick said, hyphenating his name and nickname.

"You got it?" Nick asked.

"No I didn't." Judy responded with sarcasm, which a bit offended Nick, but however...

"Okay then. Let's go through this one more time." Nick said and was about to hyphenate his name and nickname to Judy one more time...

...until he got rudely interrupted by Judy, why had turned around to face Nick.

"No! I didn't get that fact, that how in earth your mother gets along with you and your non-stopping talking? You sure your mom didn't intentionally ditch you in the first place because of that? Huh? Huh?" Judy said, with the high level of mocking sarcasm...

...before she turned around and started to walk off, with the amused grin on her face.

"Humph!" Nick snorted, greatly annoyed yet offended of Judy's sarcasm like that.

But despite still offended that Judy talked about her mother like that, Nick was not in the mood to start the argument between of them two.

And so, Nick slipped down from the ice bolder and started to walk after Judy.

 **Meanwhile.**

Jill was at the moment exited from the ice cave, still confused but yet annoyed that her prey had got away from her reach yet again.

However, Jill knew that she was on the right tracks.

Now... all she had to do, was only to find either the path or the footsteps behind the fox had left behind and follow them.

Nearby of her, Bucky was still eating some grass in peace, until he lifted his head up and looked to the direction of the glacier.

And then, Bucky spotted Jill walking among of the creeks of the molten ice water.

Bucky immediately stopped eating and munching the grass in his mouth.

Bucky's eyes widened as he spotted the bunny with the spear.

His ears raised immediately upwards.

And his from eating the grass enjoying expression turned immediately into the deep concern and even fear for his dear life.

For the prey animals, it was not very pleasant surprise to see the predators, especially the wolves which happened to be the moose natural enemies, on the horizon about hunting something like moose... and the bunny hunter with the spear, apparently after the moose skin, meat and antlers, wasn't the exception.

In fear, Bucky swallowed his own mouthful of munched grass down his throat with the one big GLUB before he turned to his brother.

"Uh... Pronk?" Bucky called his brother.

However, Pronk had not noticed the bunny with the spear on the horizon, but continued fervently to eating the grass.

"Go away, bro. I'm eating twigs." Pronk said, with his mouth full.

Bucky started to shake in fear and slowly to back off... as his eyes filled with the fear for his dear life were locked at the bunny hunter on the horizon.

"Pronk!" Bucky called his brother yet again.

However, his brother still not showed his interest to anything else but to his own eating.

"Knock it off, bro! You're breaking my sensitive concentration." Pronk said with the demanding tone.

However, his brother started to feel within himself the great urge to turn around and run for his dear life into the woods while he still can, as his legs were starting to shake out of the fear like they were on fire.

"I think... that.. weeeeee should start running! For our dear lives! As fast as we can! And hellbent for leather! LIKE NOW!" Bucky shouted out, as he hurriedly turned around and rushed out of the scene to the woods.

However, still unaware of the bunny hunter's presence, Pronk snorted in annoyance and lifted his head up from the grass and turned to look to the direction to where his brother had just went with such of hurry.

"No way, bro. As you can see, I'm still digesting, eh. And if I start to run after breakfast and with my stomach full, I'll get stomach aches, which are more annoying than the muscle aches. Besides, I'm too prone to getting cramps." Pronk said to his brother with no concern about the nearby danger.

However, when Pronk was about to turn back to his breakfast, he also suddenly spotted the bunny hunter with the spear in the glacier's groove and among of the molten ice water creeks.

And with one glance at the bunny hunter with the spear, Pronk immediately stopped his eating, as his eyes widened and he went into like paralyzed state by the shock.

Jill also had spotted Pronk from eating the grass in the border of the forest on the edge of the groove.

Jill and Pronk, kind of, locked their eyes at each others.

But once Jill gave to the moose the long dark glare with her eyes...

...Pronk was immediately snapped out of his paralyzed state, and the moose immediately spitted his own mouthful of grass out of his mouth.

"WHOA! GEEZ! PREY HUNTER WITH THE SPEAR AND SHE'S AFTER US!" Pronk screamed as he started to panic and was about to run away from the scene, but he did so too hastily that he jumped backwards too sharply, that the moose fell roughly on his side to the ground.

And with the panic like hurry, Pronk hurried back on his feet and started.

"BRO! BRO! BRO! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Pronk called his brother in panic, as he started hurriedly to look for his brother with his eyes and find out that to where his brother had already gone.

"COME ON, LITTLE BROTHER! WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING THERE! WAITING FOR GETTING FROM THE SPEAR? START RUNNING!" Bucky shouted to his brother from the woods... telling to Pronk that his brother was not close but not too far away in the woods.

"WAIT! WAIT! BROTHER, WAIT FOR ME!" Pronk shouted back in panic.

Pronk paid yet one last frightened look at the bunny hunter in the groove, before he disappeared to between of the trees and among of the bushes.

"OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! WHAT DID I JUST SAID?! I JUST GOT THE CRAMP!" Pronk loudly complained as he rushed after his brother.

 **To be continued...**

 **I hope you enjoyed of reading this chapter.**


	13. Chapter 13: On My Way part 1

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 13. ON MY WAY PART 1  
**

 **ENJOY THE READING.**

Judy and Nick, after leaving the glaciers far behind of their backs and walking some distances away from it, they were both now walking in the middle of the large fields filled with the fresh grass and beautiful multiple-colored flowers, from which beautiful butterflies and buzzing bees were currently collecting nectar for food or to make some honey... and which were surrounded by the some lone or some small forests forming spruce trees, coniferous woods and far in the horizon were up to the sky towering large and mighty snowy mountains, on the feet of which was running the large river.

While walking, Nick circled around of Judy as she continued walking forward, trying her best to ignore the energetic fox cub's entire presence around of her.

And the young fox cub kept talking constantly and incessantly.

"I'm just saying that you're gonna love Foxtopia once we reach to there."

"We often, or if to be honest, always, gather to there together to celebrate."

"In Foxtopia, no fox need to feel him- or herself as rejected, casted out from the society of the Animal Kingdom and distrusted. All the foxes are welcomed in there for the mind and spirit cheering up protection, acceptance, respect and a good company from others of our kind."

"The hospitality of the foxes is unmatched than any other animal, by our own honest way, of course."

"And the celebrating in the Foxtopia continues always through of the night."

"All those, who holds even some respect towards the foxes and does not see us as untrustworthy as the most of the animals believe, are welcomed to celebrate with us as long as they wish. Those animals are usually our neighbor grizzly bears living in the Salmon Run."

"There we can feast with the menu full of mice, the delicious roasted grouses, blueberries, blackberries, honey and salmons gotten in the trades with the bears."

"And we usually spend our time chatting with each others in anywhere or path in our special whirlpool baths."

"We also allow our fox kitten to ran everywhere playing with each others."

"And we also often gather to the one place, where the famous singer among the foxes, the white-furred vixen named Skye. She and her saber-tooth tiger dancers always makes the performs in every celebration at Foxtopia. She's extremely idolized and famous singer by most of the foxes who visits there. Maybe even too famous that even the other animals have grown to idolize and favor her despite her being the fox. You have to see that once we get to there."

However, all these talks coming from Nick's mouth only "supposedly" annoyed Judy and her sensitive bunny-, now fox ears... and Judy also tried her best to ignore everything what Nick kept telling to her.

"We also use to gather all together at the riverbank to tell each others stories of what has happened to us in this year. I enjoy that, because I always have something to tell to my fellow fox friends." Nick said.

"Oh, yeah. You indeed have. Maybe even a bit too much to share. And I've already suffered from it." Judy said with sarcasm, which did not seem to bother Nick in any way at all.

"Yeah. And even now, I have the fresh makings for my new story for this year's storyteller event, called Pass the Grouse's Leg. And, you know, it tells about how me and my mom got separated. For you to know, It's quite long story and has quite many details from the entire event, that I may save it for the Foxtopia's storyteller event." Nick said.

"But I'll tell you a little bit about it." Nick added.

Judy barely paid any kind of attention to Nick and his talks.

Nick then curled into the ball to the ground and wrapped his arms and his long tail around of him.

"I may have faced some dangers in my entire life. Such like mammoth stampede, eagle owl's attack, encountering the poisonous snake, accidentally angering the residents of the bee-hive, or even getting caught by landslides on the rain, but none of these has not caused me as much shivers as that day when I got separated from my mom." The fox kitten stated.

"And I'm telling you, that it had to be maybe fifth or sixth most coldest day in my entire life." Nick stated and tightened his arms, paws and tail around of his body and shivered like he had actually cold, though it was warm air in the field.

Judy then turned to the fox cub.

"Oh yeah. That's sounds good. You should definitely save it." Judy eventually said with the smug smile.

However, Nick immediately got excited about this.

"Ain't kidding? You think so?" the excited fox kitten asked.

"Oh yeah! Sure..." Judy stated.

"...but only your friend, because I got no time for the "blah, blah, blah-stuff." Judy added with sarcasm.

"I got the mountain to catch and I need to get there fast." Judy added with the serious tone, before she turned away from Nick to continue her walking.

"Oh." Nick said, not sounding offended at all, before he started to follow her.

"Well, I have some other stories..." Nick started, until he was quickly interrupted by Judy, after hearing this coming from the fox cub's mouth with her sensitive sense of hearing.

"U'uuuuh! Tell you what, Nick. How about, no talking, no stories, no chatting nor even one single peep, okay?" Judy suggested, or more likely demanded.

"Okay." Nick simply agreed...

...allowing Judy even for once in this close of her unwanted but necessary fox companion for that finally Nick agreed of what Judy had just told her to do... which meant "Keep your mouth shut!" asked with the kind-like and friendly-like tone rather than barking...

...though Judy had considered the idea of barking that to the cub.

And with that, Judy then turned around to continue their voyage to this "Foxtopia" and to the Tree-Pointed Mountain next to it, as the fox cub said.

However, before Judy managed to take a single step forward.

"Then I will sing. I know the perfect one! The travel-song _On My Way_ , which mom used to sing to me while traveling the long miles together. It strangely cheers up everyone, even the grumpy ones like you." Nick suggested.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no you don't." Judy said, forbidding Nick from singing.

"We had the agreement, remember? Not talking, no..." Judy tried to remind the cub about their deal, until she was interrupted by the cub himself.

"Sorry, but too late. Besides, there was no mentioning about "no singing" in our deal, remember?" Nick reminded.

"Despite that, I still forbid you..." Judy tried, until she was once again interrupted...

...as Nick actually carried out his "threat" and started to sing.

 _ **Nick:**_ _Hey, listen, everybody, I'm on my way again_

"Stop it! Stop! Will you... will you stop it?" Judy tried, but Nick did not responded.

The fox cup just continued singing and dancing while walking... and dancing at the same time.

 _ **Nick:**_ _There's so much of everything to be see_

"Are you quit it?" Judy tried again, as Nick stepped with the dancing-like steps onto the rock.

"SHH! NICK, STOP SINGING AT ONCE!" Judy tried now raising his voice... but still, Nick did not respond.

As Nick jumped onto the log and started to walk along it while singing and dancing along with the song's rhythm, Judy placed her paw to his mouth to quit the fox cub's song... but still, Nick just kept singing, even though it came out in muffled words.

 _ **Nick:**_ _My new trail is strange, but I keep walking_

Judy then tried something else to make Nick quit singing. After they had come to up towering end of the hallow log, Judy suddenly grabbed from the fox cub and pushed him inside of the log. However...

...Nick's song only echoed even louder within the hallow log, rather than attenuating it.

 _ **Nick:**_ _I get my direction from the stars of the sky_

With the sigh of frustration, Judy placed her fox paws over her ears to prevent herself from hearing anymore and kept walking.

However, she did not reach long before Nick freed himself from the log and rushed after her, quickly gaining on her.

And, much to Judy's annoyance, Nick kept singing while dancing around of Judy... not caring that was Judy either listening him or not.

...

 _ **Nick:**_ _Hey, listen, everybody, I'm on my way_

 _What else could be more enjoyable?_

 _And the first light rays of the sunrise every day_

 _I greet them with the smile on my face_

 _..._

 _We got a long journey ahead, if we just can cover it_

 _We will see all our loved ones once again_

 _And on our way we gladly listen to all those stories_

 _What the winds whisper in our ears!_

 _..._

 _So, step by step we boldly continue on our way_

 _Through the woods, hills and wild wilderness_

 _And when falls asleep in the mother's arms, under the starry night,_

 _I feel safe to see the most wonderful dreams._

 _..._

 _The journey may be full of dangers_

 _Wild predators and raging storms_

 _But that's not enough to turn me off from my way_

 _And with the feeling of the sunshine and the wind on our face_

 _We'll let you know this_

 _No way that this journey would be left unfinished_

 _..._

 _Hey, I'm on my way again... I'm going home... I'm on my way._

Nick started soon to slow down, like he was about to have a break from singing or else he had already finished.

And after that, still energetic fox cub turned to Judy to see that did his song cheered her up.

However, Nick saw that Judy's grumpy-looking look on her faces had not changed at all.

"Well? Did that cheered up, Judy?" Nick eagerly asked.

However, keeping her grumpy face and without paying any attention to Nick, simply ignoring the fox-kitten's whole presence around of her, Judy rudely passed Nick and kept walking forwards.

"No... but the fact that it has finally ended, cheered me up a bit... and even that "a bit cheer" was extremely tiny and short-lived and it has no room in this face." Judy mumbled quite rudely and sarcastically.

However, Nick didn't let that bother him mentally, though his cheering song was all for nothing.

In fact, no matter how many times over Nick ended up seeing Judy's faces still with that grumpy-look, the young fox-kitten did not even care that did Judy either listened him or not.

And with that, Nick rushed after Judy and ended up to walk beside of her, though Judy barely paid any attention to the fox-kitten's presence.

And while walking, Nick started to examine Judy's grumpy-looking expression on her face and also her possible feelings at the moment.

And while examining her...

...Nick started to figure out/believe/think/see that there was something that was bothering Judy - which was in the case of the foxes usually that rejection, discrimination, distrust, prejudice, and even physical or psychological abuse against the kind of foxes.

Nick also believed that maybe these things have something to do with Judy acting so... "not so fox-like", judging from Judy's silent and quite grumpy-looking expression on her faces and her current walking style, which greatly resembled the lone and grumpy grizzly bear's walking.

"Uhh... Judy? I'm sure that you're plenty of aware about the fact that that look on your face and your walking style belongs to the lone and grumpy grizzly bear... and were foxes, not bears." Nick said.

Judy only let out the annoyed snort.

"Well, if so, then grizzly bear's skin would be far more tasteful than the skin of fox." Judy said sarcastically.

"Okay. Let's then be both grizzly bears." Nick decided.

"Lucky that my friend Koda and his brother Kenai taught to me that how act like the sole grumpy grizzly bear." Nick added...

...before Nick changed his far more cheerful expression on his face into the similarly grumpy expression, and started to mimic Judy's walking style.

This was, of course, not left unnoticed by Judy, as she looked from behind of her eye corner at Nick and noticed the fox cub to mimicking her.

"Foxes." Judy said with the annoyed tone, as she rolled her amethyst eyes and shook her head in annoyance.

"Foxes." Nick said, mimicking Judy's words and movements with the fake-annoyed tone and rolled his own emerald eyes and shook his own head in fake-annoyance.

Judy turned to look at Nick with the annoyed look in her faces, only to notice that Nick was still mimicking her.

"Will you stop mimicking me?!" Judy said with near-frustrated tone and took immediately a small distance away from the fox cub.

Nick turned to look at Judy to see what else she was doing and what he could mimic just for fun, until he saw that Judy was not in next to him anymore.

Nick then turned to look around to see that where Judy went.

And after spotting her, Nick immediately quit mimicking her movements and words any further, taking her usual cheerful look in her faces and rushed after her.

"Hey, I'm just trying to help here to cheer up your grumpy mood." Nick said innocently, making it clear to both Judy and himself that the only one thing from what Nick cared about now, was trying to somehow cheer her up.

"Well, mimicking doesn't worked. It was a duh like your song and all. So please, and try not anything else." Judy said while she kept walking in ahead of the fox cub.

"Well, at least when I was grumpy or in the bad mood, my mother used to mimic my own movements to cheer me up." Nick explained and rushed after Judy with the smug smile on his lips.

 **...**

A bit later.

Judy and Nick had made the break to the peaceful area, which was filled with the fresh blueberry pushes.

Judy loved blueberries. It brought the good memories from the past... when she was still bunny and not trapped in the skin of the fox.

Judy used to love to eat the blueberries in the form of homemade blueberry jam with her mother's honey pancakes, which Bonnie used to make from the nature's offerings and on the narrow rock plate above of the fire, before Bonnie became the shaman and the spiritual leader of the Bunnyburrow tribe's culture, just like her own father and Judy's grandfather before her, and leaving her no time anymore to make such of delicious pancakes.

Judy also loved to have some blueberry-breaks during of the long hunting trips, during of which she always either picked the berries from the bushes or gathered some berries, mostly bigger ones, from the bushes to her cup-formed paw.

Handful of the big berries was the way to eat the berries what Judy loved, even though she knew that sometimes saving the delicious berries for later was sometimes good than eating all at once.

Even now, Judy was sitting in the next to the large blueberry bush and picked from there some bigger juicy blueberries into her fox-paw in intention to eat them all at once... because it has been for awhile when she had ate something.

And once there was the big handful of berries in her paw, Judy prepared to pour them all into her mouth.

But, before she managed to pour all of that into her mouth...

"BLUEBERRIES!" Nick's voice suddenly shouted, as the fox cub unexpectedly climbed onto Judy's head - startling Judy and causing her to lose her handful of berries to the ground - and started to east the berries from the bush.

Judy targeted her annoyed look in her eyes at the fox-kitten standing over her head eating blueberries from the bush she had already picked and claimed as her own bush, as well as all the berries in it.

And so, Judy swung her head backwards, causing Nick to lose his balance over her head and fell off her head...

...rolling backwards down of her back and rolling along the ground a small distance away from Judy, until Nick stopped rolling backwards to the next of the another blueberry bush.

Nick had also got from the bush the small branch of the bush, which was filled with the leaves and big, juicy blueberries.

Nick removed each blueberry from the branch to his paw, before he poured all of them into his mouth at once.

"HEY! NICK! That was my bush and all it's blueberries are mine, Go to pick up your own bush!" Judy said with the annoyed voice.

"Why? this is a free land." Nick mumbled, due to his mouth being full of blueberries...

...and speaking while the mouth was still full caused the juice from the munched blueberries to drain out of his mouth to his chin... much to Judy's disgust.

Judy then picked from the rock from the ground- though he was quite surprised that Nick did not reacted to this with the scared thought of to be about beaten with the rock by Judy, though Judy hided his surprise from Nick - and hit with its pointed tip to the ground, drawing the line to the ground like marking the territory, before Judy tossed the rock away.

"Now, this is my territory..." Judy said sternly to Nick, as she pointed with her clawed finger at the side of the line, where she was sitting.

And then, Judy moved her pointing paw a bit higher to point at the side, where Nick was sitting.

"...and that, is your territory." Judy said sternly, before she turned back to pour another pawful of blueberries to replace the ones she had lost because of Nick's sudden leap over her head.

"Okay." Judy heard Nick saying.

But before Judy managed to react to this in any way - or maybe she did not wanted to say anything to Nick but only to continue to feast with the blueberries - Judy saw Nick coming out to her right side holding the long stick in his paws.

The fox ran to the another corner of the bush, placed the stick's head against the ground...

...and started to draw the arching line around of Judy and that side of the bush, which ended up to the another corner of the bush.

And after that, Nick came to Judy and settled to sit next to her, but not before he draw yet the line crossing the semicircle around of them in the middle, ending to the next of the bush.

"Your territory..." Nick started with the calm and easy tone of voice, pointing with his clawed finger at the area, where Judy was sitting.

And then, Nick lowered his pointing finger down to point at his side.

"...my territory."

And then, Nick referred with both of his paws at the bush and its berries in front of them both.

"But a shared bush, along its berries." Nick finished.

Judy nearly jumped on her knees and opened her mouth to protest, but she was immediately disturbed by Nick, who opened his mouth and started to speak at first.

"It's called "sharing", Mrs. Grumpy." Nick stated, before he started to pull the berries from the bush into his mouth.

The one word, what Nick let out of his snout to Judy, caused Judy to go speechless.

"Sha... sha.. sharing?" Judy mumbled... totally speechless and confused of seeing the fox actually sharing something with the other one like with herself...

...and yet she had heard that the foxes claims and takes with the dirty ways and never bothers what the others says about it... neither even share anything with anyone, even not among of their own kind... or at least his grandpa had said so.

Eventually, Judy only shrugged her shoulders and decided to wipe the thought out of her mind and keep feasting her blueberry breakfast.

However, once she landed her fox-butt to the ground...

...the ground beneath them, the entire area marked by Nick and his stick, happened to be secret sink hole, which suddenly gave up under their weights... or at least under of Judy when she landed her butt to the ground with all her fox-body's weight...

...and they both fell into the sinkhole.

However, lucky for both of them, the sinkhole wasn't quite deep and there was some strong roots pushing out from the sink hole's walls, making it possible to climb out from the hole.

However, the landing in the bottom of the hole wasn't quite soft, but except a couple of bruises, Judy and Nick were both mostly unhurt from the fall.

"DUMB FOX! YOU REALLY HAD TO!" Judy cried out of frustration after she had landed quite roughly to the bottom of the hole, openly blaming Nick for this small and mostly harmless incident.

"Dumb foxes, I correct, Mrs. Grumpy. I may have marked the collision area above of the sink hole. My bad, of course. But may I remind you that it was your butt that gave to the ground the very last ingredient to sink into the ground." Nick said innocently...

...much to Judy's annoyance.

 **...**

And some time later, after making it out from the sinkhole, Judy and Nick were walking through of the lush leafy forest.

While Judy kept walking forward, Judy had made a homemade bag during the trip, to which she was gathering everything she considered as a food for the long trip, for example berries from bushes, eatable mushrooms from the forest, fish from the river, honey from abandoned bee hives and so on.

This brought some memories to Judy, that her mother had sometimes put her and her sister Jill to go to the trip of searching food...

...as a punishment in addition of the house arrest at times when she used to either argue or even physically struggle with her sister Jill and when there was no end of it. Not until one of their parents came to between of them to quit their fight, which was usually their father, because he often used physical excuses to punish his daughters for such of behavior...

...which his father had said to be inappropriate for the daughters of the tribe-chieftain and high shaman.

Though back then spending hours of searching food was like torture with boredom and the heavy work, Judy still missed those times as a old good family times before all this mess.

And right now, she was gathering some eatable mushrooms from the ground...

...during of which, Judy was also looking for Nick with her eyes.

After Judy had finished off with her own homemade bag, that energetic fox-kitten had demanded to have another similar bag for himself too, offering his help for Judy in search of food and using his innocent look to convince Judy to make to him a new similar bag and allow him to help her.

Thought reluctantly, Judy accepted the fox-kitten's request and made for him the other similar bag like her own, even though it was a bit smaller than her own.

Judy had then suggested that they both go to separate directions to search some food... and yet Judy had sternly ordered Nick to only gather the food into the bag, not eat it at once... because they had a long trip ahead and they needed enough food to reach to the Tree-Pointed Mountain.

Without taking any offense from Judy's stern tone of voice, Nick agreed with her in everything she said.

They had agreed to meet each others after two hours of searching...

...which felt to Judy like the heaven, where was not the constantly and annoyingly talking fox-kittens, but only her herself and her own enjoyable silent peace... which, however, lasted only two hours.

And two hours had almost went already, meaning that they had to take whatever they got from the search with them and keep moving.

However, there was not any sign of Nick anywhere...

...meaning that Nick had either lost or then he was "once again" in his own words of something.

Judy snorted out of frustration and annoyance, as she realized that she had to go to find that stupid little fox-kitten.

And Judy used first fifteen minutes of searching Nick from the woods.

"Nick? Nick? Where did you go? Come no, you dumb little fox-kitten! It was supposed to be two hours and now you're fifteen minutes late!" Judy shouted around of her, but there was not to be heard any kind of respond.

"C'mon! Nick! Come here, immediately! We were suppose to keep moving immediately after two hours! And I don't have time to waste!" Judy shouted once more.

And still no response.

"Where did that dumb fox went?! Do I need to go through the entire forest to search for that dumb kitten?!" Judy murmured in annoyance.

...as she kept searching for the fox.

 **30 minutes later**

Judy was still searching for Nick...

...even though Judy wished that she could simply just leave him behind just anytime, Nick was the only one around of here who knew the location of this Foxtopia and also the location of the Tree-Pointed Mountain... and without him, Judy would do nothing except to get lost in the wilderness.

But, her temporarily useful and yet currently missing guide started to frustrate her so much...

...that she started to let out from her mouth the foxes angry barkings out of frustration.

"If he would not be that young, I would give him drubbing for wasting my time!" Judy growled while searching.

Suddenly, Judy heard something which was coming near, right from behind of the some trees and bushes...

...something that sounded quite like laughing out of amusement.

"What's going on out there?" Judy asked from herself and dared to take some steps towards the bushes to look behind of them...

...but being this time careful, just in case that there was the group of, for example, wild boards laughing while bathing in the mud, who would end up by starting to throw the mud-balls at her right away from one sight of her and her fox appearance, due to the notorious distrust towards the foxes.

Trying to being as silent as the foxes are usually, Judy carefully and quietly took the step after step towards the bushes...

...until she was right next to the bushes...

...after which, a bit hesitation about the outcome and not willing to have another humiliating mud bath like she did yesterday...

...Judy dared to peek a little bit over the bushes to look that who was laughing in there.

And once she had peeked to behind of the bushes from hiding, her eyes suddenly widened in surprise.

It was Nick out there, in the small open area!

And the fox-kitten was not alone.

There was the small group of some mammals and birds; such like one calf of deer, on squirrel, one goose, several young-looking hawks, one young otter and a wolf puppy, couple raccoons and another couple of tortoises and yet even trio of hares with the fox-kitten...

...who apparently weren't caution nor even scared of Nick's presence at all, There was no sign of distrust in anyone's eyes or faces like most of animals usually have.

Instead, they all seemed to be laughing at the fox-kitten.

And for the reason, as Judy turned her eyes to Nick, who was apparently showing to these mammals and birds some kind of performance... but what?

And after Judy took a bit closer look at him, she realized that what Nick was doing...

"Deer..." Nick said, as he placed some branches on his head to look like some kind of fox with the deer's antlers.

And the crowd of animals and birds burst into the joyful laugh at the sight.

"You gotta be kidding me?!" Judy snarled, as she felt embarrassed for Nick's performance.

"Eagle..." Nick said, as he placed from the wood shaped mask, which resembled the eagle's faces, and in addition of which, Nick took several long eagle feathers, placed some of them to hang from his pants behind them, so that they would look like the real eagle's tail. And he kept the rest of the feathers in his paws as he started to swing them alternately first up and then down and so on... pretending to be flying like the eagle.

"Ram..." Nick said, as he net placed two curved horns on his head, and started to mimic the ram's snorts, bounce from the rock to rock like the rams usually does in the mountains, by jumping in the steep slopes from the rock to rock without the difficulties.

"Boar..." Nick said, as he placed on his face the wooden mask, which was shaped to resemble the wild boar's faces, and Nick started then to mimic the boar's shrieks.

"Alligator..." Nick said, as he next placed a pair of wide and straight wooden blocks, in the edges of which was the line of some snapped branches like teeth, in front of his mouth and started to snap then together time after time while mimicking the alligator's hissing.

"Rabbit..." Nick said, as he then took from two nearby bushes two large and upwards widening leaves, which he then placed/tied on his head to look like the rabbit ears... and to look like the rabbit rather than the rabbit with the fox ears, Nick pulled his own fox ears into hide against the back of his head.

Nick yet took out from the leaves made the leaf-ball, which he tied with the robe around of his waist to hang above of his butt, so that the leaf-ball may look like tghe bunny's fluffy tail.

And then, Nick started to bounce the circle for couple times with his hind legs, before the fox cub settled down to sit like the rabbits (real rabbits) sometimes does, before Nick then took out the carrot and started to chew it like the rabbits does.

And for each animal Nick selected and mimicked to amuse the crowd before him, the crowd of mammals and birds burst into laughter.

Though from the hide witnessing Judy was quite amazed that Nick actually possessed the ability to pretty well mimic the different animals... partially their appearance but yet quite well their usual behaviors and even their sounding, which amused the other animals before the fox kitten...

...Judy nearly took it as an offense that Nick was trying to mimic/pretend to be rabbit, because by her opinion, the foxes should act like foxes - selfish, untrustworthy, cunning and thieving cheaters - and the rabbits should act like rabbits - honest, peaceful and willingly working to earn to live - and not otherwise.

And in her eyes, Nick was this very moment giving to the honest rabbits the bad name by giving these unsuspecting animals the impression "Fox in rabbit's clothing."

And so, Judy decided that the show time was already over and she stepped out from the bushes...

...to pick up Nick from the scene, before he "could" spoil the honest bunnies name even further.

However, her sudden appearance startled the crowd, and they immediately backed off after the first glance of the bigger fox coming out from the bushes.

Judy was quite confused of this that why these animals were frightened of her and kept distance away from her and not Nick, even though Nick was the red fox as well, or at least the real fox.

But, in fact, Judy didn't care... Judy didn't even bother to excuse her quite rude interference to this, thinking only her goal in the end of the trip and her chances to get there as fast as possible and out of her fox coat.

Judy only stepped behind of Nick and grabbed from the fox-kitten's clothes and dragged him away from the scene.

"Well, guys... I think that the show is over. See ya all in the next week." Nick said to the crowd, not even paying attention to Judy, as the larger fox was dragging him away from the scene.

The fox-kitten only kept his attention and the wide smile on his crowd, waving his paws at them as goodbyes.

 **to be continue...**

 **I gotta stop this chapter right here.**

 **Originally, this chapter was supposed to be half longer than this, but due having keep you guys waiting for a next chapter of my story far too long, I decided to split the chapter into a few parts.**

 **I hoped that you guys liked f reading this chapter.  
**


	14. Chapter 14: On My Way part 2

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 14. ON MY WAY PART 2  
**

 **ENJOY THE READING.**

Much later...

...after Judy had dragged Nick away from those mammals and birds, Judy had not bothered to waste her time to scold Nick - at least not much - for disappearing like that... but instead, Judy sternly forbid the fox-kitten from doing something like that EVER again when they are in a hurry to the mountain...

...both the fox-kitten and the young adult fox - or the rabbit in the fox's clothing - were walking across the field, in the middle of which was the large carpet of beautiful golden flowers, whose golden color was due to the abundance of pollen.

Judy, of course, didn't paid any attention nor interesting towards the carpet of golden flowers but kept going forward past of the flower carpet.

However, the carpet of golden flowers caught Nick's interest.

"Hey Judy, have you ever bathed in the carpet of flowers before?" Nick asked from Judy, though Judy paid a little attention and interest to Nick's question.

"No." Was her only answer, with a quite rude tone.

However, Nick didn't take Judy's answer's rude tone as an offense.

"Well, I have... and many times over in my life. You see, me and some of my fellow fox friends used to bath in the carpet of flowers when we were a bit younger. And I've also bathed in the carpet of flowers many times over with my mother after I had managed to convince her to join me. It's so relaxing and so fun." Nick said.

However, Judy wasn't as convinced and interested of such of thing unlike Nick.

"Merely destroying the beautiful part of the nature, that's what you're doing to do to the Mother Nature's garden... and worst of all, it's only the waste of my time." Judy answered, without stopping for a moment and paying any attention nor interest to Nick and his idea to bath in the carpet of flowers.

However, it was Nick's time to be unconvinced after hearing Judy's rude-toned answer.

"What are you talking about, Judy? I mean it, it's fun. You should try it by yourself even for once. Besides, A long journey without some fun in addition of the travel companion, it's incredibly boring." Nick protested with the eager feelings.

"Besides, one bath in the flowers doesn't destroy the Mother Nature's entire flower garden." Nick said...

...and with that, Nick jumped off from Judy's side and rushed towards the carpet of flowers.

Even though Judy paid a little interesting of what Nick was doing, Judy eventually turned her head to Nick's and the carpet of flowers direction...

...and followed with her eyes at the fox as Nick climbed to the top of the small boulder and leaped from it into the air and flew in arch towards the carpet of flowers and "dived" among of them like into the water, which splashed the flowers and golden pollen into the air.

Nick disappeared briefly out of the sight, before he emerged out from the carpet that his head, shoulders, arms and the rest of his upper body were above of the surface of the carpet of the flowers and waved his paws at Judy to have her attention to himself.

"This is great, Judy! You should try!" Nick encouraged.

"It's so fun to dig the tunnels to underneath of the flowers like a mole..." Nick said, as he dived into the flowers again and out of the sight...

...but the small bulge above of the flowers and the shaking flowers told to Judy that where Nick was moving among of the flowers.

And after being five minutes out of the sight, Nick emerged again out from underneath of the flowers.

"...and not to mention about pouring the armful of flowers into the arms, tossing them into the air and letting them to fall over me like the rain with the sweet scent." Nick explained...

...as he poured some flowers into his arms, sniffed them to fill his nose with their sweet scent, before he tossed the flowers into the air and allowed them to float down around and over him like the rain.

Nick kept doing this over and over, sending numerous of flowers into the air and their either remained floating above of him or slowly floated to the ground.

Nick then jumped down by all fours and started to ran all around of the carped of flowers, making the makeshift and with the each others messing labyrinthine tunnels into the carpet, marking his path in them.

And that also caused even more and more flowers - and tons of golden pollen to be sent into the air.

Judy followed from aside as Nick kept running among the flowers, laughing out of fun, even though he was pathing in the carpet of flowers all alone.

"Great, just great. now is another carpet of flowers again ruined and soon to be destroyed by that dumb fox, depending on that that how many carpet of flowers that dumb fox has already destroyed before." Judy said with the sarcastic tone, as she kept walking past of the carpet of flowers.

"Well, if there happens to be a plenty of bees gathering the pollen from these flowers, and if that fox-kitten happens to mess with the bees, managing to make them angry at him, the sight would be more than just amusing." Judy said with the smug smile and sarcastic tone...

...nearly hoping that Nick happens to mess with the bees and antagonize them enough that they would give chase after him, and punish that fox-kitten for disturbing their peace.

However, completely something else happened instead of that, which Judy realized too late, before it already happened.

The more Nick ran all around in the carpet of flowers, the more he sent more flowers and pollen to the air...

...and yet the wind blew all of those in the air and above of Nick and the carpet of flowers floating pollen straight towards Judy's direction.

"HEY! WHATTA!" Judy shouted out of surprise...

...as the blow of the wind and all of that with the wind floating pollen floated unexpectedly against her, causing Judy to back off and cover her faces with her arms to protect her faces so that the pollen cannot flow into her eyes nor mouth.

"NICK!" Judy shouted Nick's name with the scolding tone.

Nick heard Judy calling his name and stopped running among of the flowers, turning to the direction, where judy was standing in the middle of the cloud of against her floating flowers and pollen.

"What? It's the wind, who is to blame, not me. I can not influence to the wind. Nobody can influence the power of nature in any way." Nick said innocently.

"Besides, as I told earlier, it's fun to allow the flowers to fall over me like the rain with the sweet scent." Nick added.

However, by Judy's opinion, this was far away from fun.

But when, as the wind began to fade away, and the flowers and pollen started to float back to the ground...

...the cloud revealed to Nick the very amusing sight.

Judy was completely covered by the tons and tons of pollen all around of her body, that only her faces were still in seen.

In fact, abundant pollen on Judy, including the ball of pollen around of her fox tail, made her look like the giant bee, without the wings of course.

The wind had also blew a pair of branches, that were hanging in each side of Judy, between of her arms and legs, making it to look like Judy had, like the bees usually have, six limbs.

There was also one branch, which was sticking out from behind of the ball of pollen like the bees' sting.

And yet, Judy had two flowers above of her head like the pair of bees antlers.

After seeing Judy's new "bee-costume" after the cloud of flowers and pollen had completely faded away...

...Nick immediately burst into hearty laughter, and the fox-kitten laughed so loudly and heartily, that he fell over to the ground among of the flowers and rolled in them, while having his paws and arms wrapped around of his stomach as he laughed.

"HA-HAA, BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! AH-HAA, HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! WHO-HO-HO-HO-HAA-HI-HI-HI-HE-HE-HE- HA-HA-HA-HAA!" Nick laughed, much to Judy's annoyance.

"It is a pity that we do not have a stone wall nearby or paint included, it would be fun to perpetuate this sight and moment... yet with the name "Bee-fox" or "Fox in the bee's cloths." Nick said, while trying to hold back his laugh.

However, Judy wasn't as amused as still a bit giggling fox-kitten.

"Lucky for me! But unlucky for you, dumb fox, that there is going to happen something very soon! Something what you will remember quite long time without forgetting it!" Judy said with extremely frustrated tone...

...and took several steps towards Nick in attempt to give him such a whipping that the fox-kitten would not forget so easily.

However, Nick had prepared for this.

As Judy approached her menacingly, Nick poured some pollen into his paw and lifted his paw and the pawful of pollen in the level of his nose.

"It usually requires cold water to make the people to calm down, but because we have no water, I'll use the sneezing season as my advantage to fend off the opponents." Nick explained, as he blew the pollen from his paw to Judy's node...

...which caused Judy to stop like in the wall, after she suddenly felt something tickling in her nose.

"Wha... wha... what di... did you... do to... to me... ah... ah... AH... AH!" Judy said, as she tried in vain to remove the tickling source from her nose, until it appeared like she was about to sneeze.

"And yet, my apologizes, if you happen to be allergic to pollen, Judy." Nick innocently apologized.

"And in addition to all, I've used it as my advantage once when stampeding herd of mammoths was once nearly about to ruin the festival in Foxtopia. The pollen had quite effective effect to the mammoth herd as it sneezed itself back to where they came from." Nick added.

"AH-AH-AH-CHOO!" Judy let out the loud sneeze...

...which echoed all around of the large area in the air, startled every bird in each tree and, who knows, draw the attention of every animal nearby area to the direction of his sneeze... just like her own scream in agony on that morning, when she found herself in the fox's cloths.

Her sneeze was also powerful enough to shook all the pollen off her, making her to loss her "bee-costume"...

...as well as it pushed her backwards, making her to land on her butt to the ground and among of the flowers.

"Gesundheit." Nick said.

Nick then took out the piece of fabric and handed it over to Judy.

"Here. Use this." Nick offered.

Judy, however and as Nick expected, grabbed the fabric quite rudely and unceremoniously from Nick's paw and sneezed into it...

...before she tossed it back to Nick, without even thanking him.

"Have you already bathed?" Frustrated Judy asked from Nick as she was about to get up on her feet.

Nick, after hearing Judy's - quite rudely asked - question, was about to say something as an answer, until he was quickly and quite rudely interrupted by Judy.

"In fact, no need to answer. I'm not interested to know because I already saw it." Judy said with the rude tone, as she turned her back to Nick and and started to shake with her paws all extra pollen off from her fur, from her clothes and from her tail.

"Now come on. Your bath-time has already wasted MY time here!" Judy ordered as she, without wasting more time to give to Nick "such a whipping that the fox-kitten would not forget so easily", turned her back to Nick and started to walk away from the carpet of flowers.

"Whatever." Nick said with no-offended tone from Judy's harsh and rude attitude, before starting to shake off all extra pollen from his fur, clothes and tail as well, before the fox-kitten rushed after Judy.

 **...**

Later, tonight...

The day had already turned into the night.

It was a quite bright night, because there was no any single cloud in the night sky.

The dark-blue night sky was filled with the bright stars and the bright full moon, that lightened the entire area with its light.

It was also quite calm in the air.

After walking quite long and enough for one day and when the day was getting dark, Judy and Nick had both searched the whole area to find the perfect place where to sleep their night in safe from the many possible fox-eating predators.

It didn't took long from them when they crossed the paths with the large rock standing in middle of the forest and which was towering up to the sky, reaching above of the trees.

In fact, Nick was the one who had discovered the rock... because the whole forest was quite familiar to Nick, meaning he had walked with his mother through that certain forest before on their way to the south, and during of which he had also discovered the rock.

It was Nick's first - and only - choice as their shakedown for tonight...

...and although Judy a bit hesitated, due to the fact that even though the high places could offer them the protection from the ground predators that hunts and eats foxes, that does not offer then the protection from the birds of prey, such like the fox-eating eagle owls that hunts at night time...

...Judy was too tired to search any other perfect and yet safe place to spend their night in safe from the fox-eating predators.

And soon, they both had started to climb along the rock's side.

And after Judy and Nick had managed to climb on flat edge, which was a quite near of the rock's narrowing top and the edge, to which they had climbed, reached to high above of the trees, they both immediately went asleep.

And, as in the last night inside of the glacier on that day when they met, Judy - still unwilling to sleep the fox in next to her - had once again sternly told Nick to sleep in the another corner, which was nex to the rest of the rock's still upwards towering tip, while she herself remained to sleep near of the edge, so that she could keep the distance between of them.

However, despite being calm air, that night was pretty cold.

Though Judy, as having experienced a many than just one cold nights while hunting with her father and Jill in the northern woods in her own rabbit skin, did not allow the coldness of the night to bother her... though she slept her clothes on her and having curled into the ball for the warmth.

However, unlike Judy, Nick was inexperienced and unused with the cold nights and was shivering out of cold in the corner of the flat edge... despite sleeping with his own clothes on him.

And because of the coldness of the night, Nick was nearly completely unable to go to sleep.

Usually, when Nick had cold in the night, his mother had kept him warm by curling around of him to bring to him the warmth through the night.

But now, because his mother was not in the scene, the only one who was in the presence was Judy.

Despite having sternly ordered by Judy to stay in that corner where he was struggling between of his own sleeping and the coldness of the night at the moment...

...and also despite of Nick's knowledge of Judy's clear and open cold, cranky, ill-tempered, grumpy and stubborn attitude, probably because of some bad experience in her past that had caused Judy to avoid any kind of company in Nick's eyes...

...Nick's desperate attempts to ignore the coldness and his need of warmth started to get best of him.

And with that, having enough of the coldness and in the need of warmth, Nick jumped off the ground on his feet...

...and started slowly and quietly sneak towards Judy, temporarily stopping three times to check Judy's status, hoping that she would not wake up, or that she would let him to sleep that night next to her, before continuing approach her...

...even though Nick already suspected that what would happen in the seconds after he had settled himself comfortably in next to her to sleep.

However, under of her cold and in need of comfort and warmth bested his alternate opinion to stay in the corner, where he was struggling to get sleep and kept carefully and silently approaching towards Judy.

And eventually, Nick finally reached to Judy's side and carefully - so that he does not wake her - the fox-kitten settled himself comfortably next/against to Judy's back and was about to go asleep.

However, after a couple minutes after Nick had settled neck to Judy in need of warmth and comfort...

...Judy suddenly stood up on her feet from the ground, revealing to Nick that she wasn't completely fallen asleep at all unlike he had thought.

Murmuring sleepily, yet annoyed of Nick disobeying her direct orders to stay in another corner of the edge, Judy moved away from Nick and headed towards the corner of the flat edge, where Nick had lied and struggled between of the coldness and sleep a moment ago.

"If you would hunt by yourself in cold conditions, instead of staying in the warm conditions hustling and stealing from the others stuff earned with the hard work, you would get used to cold conditions." Judy said to him with the rude tone, as usually.

Even though Nick did not mind of most of Judy's cold and rude tone, harsh treatment and attitude towards him so far on their common trip towards Foxtopia and the Three-Pointed-Mountain, he took the words of "hustling" and "stealing" as an offensive.

Nick only watched from aside, as Judy walked and eventually stopped to the next to the rest of the rock's tip.

And with that, Judy then lied down on his left side to the ground and turned her back to Nick's direction.

"Now, go to sleep! And stay where you are now... away from me. Got it?" Judy ordered Nick, yet again sternly.

Nick himself was too tired to protest back...

...though he still kept wondering that what was wrong with her, that she needed to act like that.

Of course, Nick knew some foxes who have had enough of ill-treatment and prejudice without any good reason for foxes coming from the other animals, that it had caused some of the foxes to live the known motto among the some foxes...

 _If the world is only gonna see the fox - even one so small, pure, honest and innocent - as cunning and untrustworthy, there is no point of trying to be anything else, except to be that kind of fox the others - particularly prey but even some predators - want to see from even a single one fox._

...meaning that the foxes either start to live as dishonest, cunning and deceitful foxes, who lives their miserable life by cheating others and stealing from others to survive in the world, that is not friendly towards the foxes... which only worsened the rare belief of foxes being honest, friendly and trustworthy, giving them even badder name in the entire animal kingdom.

And Nick knew that too well.

And that's why, Nick had developed for himself his own motto...

 _Never let them see that they get to you_.

...which he had spread to the other disheartened foxes, that had fell as an victim to the others ill-treatment and prejudice, in order to encourage them to not care what the other (prey) animals says about the foxes but to look into the better and brighter future and work hard and to prove that the prejudiced animals have been wrong about the foxes... instead of remain under of their discouraging self-pity and emotional misery brought upon of them by the prejudiced prey animals and live like they all want the foxes to live, so that they can have more excuses to make more bad and ill-founded rumors about the foxes.

But in Judy's case, by Nick's opinion and in Nick's eyes, Nick has never before seen a fox that has supposedly experienced such misguided treatment and prejudices about her - due to being the fox - that she has developed for herself some kind of self-hatred towards herself and her own species...

...which was as if Judy actually hoped to be some other animal rather than fox.

 **...**

Later on the morning...

The morning wake was anything but pleasant to both Judy and Nick.

The morning sky was covered with the gray-purple thunderclouds, as the thunder rumbled deeply and a small distance away from the duo and they were caught by the slightly pouring rain.

Fortunately for the duo...

...this was not the fierce thunderstorm, because these clouds above of them were not the clouds of such of fierce thunderstorm, that could have cause such of storm winds that could destroy the most of the forests.

And along with the destructive storm winds, the fierce thunderstorm could have cause such of pouring rains that could cause both devastating floods and land- and mudslides, which were extremely dangerous threat for those who lived in underground.

And along with the destructive storm winds and pouring rain, the fierce thunderstorm could cause such of fierce and fearful lighting in the stormy sky, and such of powerful thunderbolts are capable to tore with one strike the large pieces out of the rocks, cut down the large, thick and strong trees to the ground, and in the worst case cause the forest fire

Judy had experienced such of events, because her Bunnyburrow village had been once destroyed by such of thunderstorms.

And that day will never be forgotten among the Bunnyburrow bunnies.

 **...**

On that night, when such a fierce thunderstorm had arrived upon Bunnyburrow village, the thunderstorm had brought with it such of fierce storm winds that - along with the frequent lightning's powerful thunderbolts that struck to the threes all over the place, causing them to fall over to the ground - caused most of the forest around of their village to fall over their tents and rabbit holes, destroying the rabbits tents and trapping most than half of entire tribe of bunnies underground.

And that storm's massive pouring rain had caused the massive watery mudslide to slide down from the upper hill above of the tribe, threatening to cover the entire Bunnyburrow village and tribe under of tons and tons of mud.

The watery mud bothered greatly the tribe warriors attempt to rescue trapped tribe members from the mess, and yet the watery mud flowed down into the warrens and threatened to fill the tunnels with mud, yet the tunnels of the warren were full of panicking rabbits trapped in underground.

But fighting against from the upper hills flowing the mudslide, as well as the thunderstorm's fierce wind and pouring water and their worst enemy on that moment, time, with all together, the Bunnyburrow tribe's brave warriors managed with the suicidal courage and the strength of numbers to lift some fallen logs off from blocking the exit from the tunnels of warrens, thus managing to free/rescue most of those trapped rabbits who had gathered into the large groups in tight spaces of the tunnels that led out of the warren to wait for to be rescued, before the mudslide would get worse and bury all the rabbit holes with mud and thus filling the warrens tunnels and caves with it as well.

However, the tribe warriors did not succeed to push the heavy logs off from all of the rabbit holes in time, because when the mudslide worsened and even more mud slid in the village, the mud started to bury the rabbit holes one by one while there was still panicking rabbits trapped under of the exit-blocking fallen logs.

And as even more rabbit holes got buried under of the mudslide, even more watery mud flowed into the warren beneath of the mudslide that the water and mud in the warren started to reach to the ceilings of the tunnels and underground caverns faster than what the warriors were capable to move the logs away from blocking the exit out of the warrens...

...thus sending all the rabbits inside of the warrens into stampede-like panic in the exit-tunnel, as they all pressed in desperate attempt to get out against with each others into the cage-like formation in front of the rabbit holes messed thick branches of the fallen trees, as even more and more mud flowed into their tunnels before they got buried alive by mud... and their desperate pleads for help and cries out of fear of death still traumatically bothered many rabbits that survived from that day.

And that's why, the Bunnyburrow tribe suffered its history's the largest number of death in the hands of nature, as the fallen logs that blocked the exit from the warrens' underground tunnels and into the warrens floating flowing watery mud of the mudslide together killed more than half from entire Bunnyburrow tribe's population of over four thousands rabbits.

And from over three thousand and five hundred rabbits that were inside of the warrens caverns and tunnels in the beginning if the storm, the tribe warriors managed to rescue from the certain death in the half-filled tunnels of warren one thousand, one hundred and sixty-eight rabbits, vast most of which were the bunny children, but the rest of two thousand, three hundred and forty rabbits, mostly bucks and does, got killed as most of them got buried alive by the mud and water, drowning them all in their own warrens.

And the casualties only rose when the mud flows killed three hundred and thirty rabbits more, who were mostly the tribe warriors - who sacrificed their lives to rescue as many rabbits as they were capable and got buried alive under mud - but also from the partially with mud filled tunnels rescued rabbits, who were caught by the mud flow and taken back into the rabbit holes to where the mud was flowing and got buried alive and drowned.

The incident left slightly over one thousand and two hundred thirteen rabbits alive, most of which were bunny children - including young Judy and Jill back then - and less than half adult rabbit does and bucks - including Stu and Bonnie.

And several years after the incident, the vast majority of the current population of the tribe were to the young adulthood reached descendants of those rabbits, who had experienced and survived from the killer storm, and their own generation.

 **...**

However, despite small thunder and pouring rain - or simply not even caring about the thunder and pouring rain - Judy and Nick climbed down from the flat edge of the rock and kept moving on their trip towards Foxtopia and Three-Pointed-Mountain.

And later on that day, after leaving behind the forest... when the small thunderstorm was still going on...

Judy and Nick were walking in the open area, where the ground was wet and muddy due to the pouring rain, that has been rained already throughout the morning and forenoon, and the and thunder rumbled above of them in the clouds.

And Judy, during of her and Nick crossing the open muddy area where was no trees to shelter them from the rain, had picked from somewhere the large and wide leaf to shelter herself from the rain, while walking in the mud.

Judy was also one of those rabbits, who didn't like to get their fur dirty, so Judy tried her best to not get her fur dirty, despite the fact that she was still wearing the clothes Nick gave to her.

However, the muddy area did not seemed to bother Nick...

...as the energetic and eager fox-kitten was walking along the mammoth-sized footprints - which were now the puddles filled with the muddy rain water - alternately bounced from one footprint to another for fun...

...and during of which, Nick bounced past of Judy and kept jumping ahead of her, though the fox-kitten accidentally kicked the mud into her clothes in the process.

So much for trying to not get herself dirty.

Even though Judy get a bit annoyed that Nick had got her clothes dirty - which she still doubted Nick having stolen them from someone else - Judy's only reaction to this was a deep sigh, which for the first time since meeting Nick was not out of annoyance nor frustration...

...but this time, more likely out of slight amusement, as the small smile briefly visited on her lips as Judy looked at Nick and shook her head... before she continued walking after the fox kitten.

 **to be continue...**

 **I gotta stop this On My Way Part 2 chapter right here.**

 **I hoped that you guys liked reading this chapter.**


	15. Chapter 15: On My Way part 3: Mud-fight

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 15. ON MY WAY PART 3: MUD-FIGHT  
**

 **ENJOY THE READING.**

Later in that afternoon...

...after the gray-purple thunderclouds and the rain had passed them and remained far behind...

Judy and Nick found themselves walking coniferous forest, which also seemed to be familiar to Nick.

 _Walked through of this while traveling to the south_. Nick had explained.

Both the foxes were at the moment walking near of the open edge of the high cliff that was towering above of the trees of the forest beneath of the cliff.

And as they were passing it, Nick suddenly rushed towards the edge of the cliff.

"Hey, Nick! Where you're going?" Judy asked, much more gentle this time, which she noticed after saying the question...

...and realizing that she had started to warm up to the fox-kitten, despite the fact that she was the fox.

Even Nick noticed this after hearing Judy's question with the gentle and far more friendly tone.

"I'm gonna show you something fun." Was Nick's only response, as he kept rushing towards the edge.

Judy didn't understand at first that what Nick actually meant, but Judy started to follow Nick right behind of him after the fox-kitten went too close of the edge of the cliff... starting to show a bit concern for the fox-kitten's safety and well-being.

"Wow, Nick! Aren't you seriously thinking about jumping off the cliff?!" Judy said with the alerted tone.

However, the fox-kitten wasn't worried at all that what he was doing.

"Of course not. Only an idiot jumps off the cliff like that." Nick answered.

"But I meant with the fun this one. Look!" Nick said...

...as Nick took off his fur shirt and went dangerously close of the edge of the cliff, where Nick then spread his arms and leaned freely forward with all his weight over the edge of the cliff...

...which would have led the fox-kitten to fall over the edge and fall down from the cliff, and Nick's daredevil act also got Judy almost to rush hurriedly towards Nick to grap from the fox's clothes to prevent him from falling down the cliff.

However, because today was a quite a windy day, a hard blowing gusts of wind pushed Nick backwards while Nick's own weight pressed Nick together with his to the forward sharply leaning position forward over the edge of the cliff and against the wind...

...causing Nick to "float" in the gusts of wind in the edge of the cliff.

And the fur in his bare and shirtless upper body was fluttering along the wind.

And as Judy arrived to the edge of the cliff and next to Nick, she saw that Nick had nothing to worry about.

He just kept leaning and "floating" against the gusts of wind...

...while Judy followed Nick's doing from aside.

"Are you sure that this is safe?" Judy said, as she looked down over the cliff and saw that the fall down was pretty steep and long.

As told before, Judy felt always a bit hesitant to do something very daredevil in the high places, despite that she was anything but afraid of high places.

"Yeah, sure." Was Nick's only respond.

"It's like flying. Just try. Just follow my lead." Nick encouraged, as he as he kept enjoying floating in the wind.

Though Judy was still a pit hesitant to step close of the edge of the cliff and lean forward that she was dangerously close to fall down the cliff...

...she eventually did as Nick encouraged her to do, with the exception that she didn't took her own fur shirt off.

She stepped a bit closer of the edge of the cliff and started to lean towards the edge of the cliff with all her weight.

And she was instantly caught by the gusts of wind.

Suddenly, she suddenly started to feel herself lighter like the feather as the wind blew against her...

...that she had to struggle to keep herself in balance in the wind.

And the wind yet caused her shirt's hem flutter in the wind, allowing the cold wind to enter inside of her shirt and blow against her upper body, sending some chills to run along Judy's body.

And soon, as Judy started to quickly get used to this...

...she actually started to indeed find some fun of this.

And with that, Judy let out the hearty chuckle to escape from her mouth out of fun.

Nick also noticed that Judy had finally found her own fun from this, and joined to Judy's laugh with his own hearty laugh.

Laughing heartily, the foxes enjoyed this for several minutes...

...until the wind suddenly started to calm until it eventually stopped completely...

...and leaving the foxes to stand in the edge of the cliff.

However, the foxes had no time to show their disappointment that the fun had stopped too early...

...as they realized that they were still leaning forward with all of their weight and without the wind's support...

...both the foxes fell screaming over the edge of the cliff and fell freely the long way down.

Judy and Nick then fell against the steep hill near of the feet of the entire hill, and a bit painful landing on their stomachs against the hillside's rock, the landing tossed them to fly the rest of the fall...

...until they were about to make the apparently lethal landing to the feet of the hill, which was a bit dark and quite rocky area and where there were some old fallen trees lying all around among of the rocks.

However, they survived from the further injury by falling to the pit in middle of the rocks, which was filled with the mud.

This was followed by the big splash of mud all over the place after the foxes hand landed - or more likely, dived - into it.

And with the seconds, the foxes soon emerged out from the mud... and both of them were covered with the large layer of mud, leaving their faces - partially - uncovered by the mud.

And unlike with Judy's pollen layer back in that field and that carpet of pollen covered flowers... the layer of mud on her felt a bit heavier while the pollen itself felt more lighter.

Nick meanwhile shook with his paws most of the mud off his faces, after which Nick checked his own well-being to ensure that there was no any physical damage - with the exception of a pair of bruises.

And after Nick had checked twice that he had not suffered any further physical injuries from the fall, the fox-kitten then turned to Judy.

"Judy, are you..." Nick was about to ask with a bit worry for Judy's own well-being and hoped that she neither had not suffered any worse physical damages from falling...

...until the fox-kitten suddenly lost his words at the sight of Judy's muddy form.

"No worry, Nick! Not counting in a couple bruises, I'm... fine." Judy stated as she turned to Nick...

...until she went into confusion as she found Nick staring at her with the widened eyes and mouth hanging open like the fox-kitten was dumbfounded of something.

"What? I didn't get hurt... Or did you expect me to have my head sliced in half by one of those sharp-edged rocks when we fell to this pit of mud?" Judy asked, a bit annoyed of Nick's expression on his faces.

And suddenly...

Nick unexpectedly burst into hearty laughter and fell on his back to the mud still laughing heartily, much to Judy's confusion.

"What? What? What's so funny?" Judy asked a bit annoyed though confused...

...as he at the same time tried her best to not lose her temper this time at Nick's laugh, even though it was apparently targeted at her.

Nick, after having his laugh and managing, though barely, to hold his laugh back, stood up from the mud.

"Nothing, but I have never heard or seen before such subtypes of foxes, who have deer's antlers over their heads." Nick explained, before he once again fell into laughter.

Judy looked up over her, and she saw to her surprise two multi-branched branches hanging over her head, stuck in the mud on her head, like the moose's antlers.

"Oh, yeah?" Judy said, with the smug and sly grin on her lips...

...as she poured some mud into her paws and some other nature's stuff from nearby and wadded through of the mud until he reached to next to Nick.

And, using the distraction of Nick's giggling as her advantage, Judy spent over five minutes to make a quick and handmade face-shaping with the mud and other stuff he had gathered to execute her little humorous payback for the fox-kitten.

And after she had finished, Judy stepped back and crossed her arms in front of her chest... looking at Nick with the sly smile and expression on her face.

"So you have never heard or seen foxes with the antlers, eh? How about the rare subtype of foxes with the mammoth's ears, tusks, trunk and tuft of hair above of their heads?" Judy slyly questioned.

After hearing Judy's question, Nick took the look at himself...

...and noticed that Judy had shaped his head and faces to look like the young mammoth's head...

...as Judy had covered his upper body and head with the doubled layer of mud...

...and that there was two large mud-covered leaves, which Judy had attached to hang in each side of his head to be like the mammoth's ears.

There was also two small curved branches, which Judy had attached with mud to hang from Nick's cheeks to be like the young mammoth's tusks...

...and there was yet the larger leaf, which Judy had wrapped together, covered with the small layer of mud, and which she had placed it to hang from Nick's muzzle to be like like the young mammoth's short trunk...

...and finally, Judy had placed the mud ball over nick's head and covered it with from nearby found and gathered the leaves to be like tuft of hair above of the mammoth's, both young and adult ones, heads.

And with that a new mammoth-look, Nick turned to Judy with the humorously offended - just humorously - look in the fox-kitten's eyes targeted at Judy, who still smiled slyly at the fox-kitten from next to him.

"Hey!" Nick exclaimed with the humorously offended tone.

"It's called a payback, Slick-Nick." Judy said smugly...

...until both of them burst into the hearty laughter.

And it was then, when Nick, having managed to hold his laugh back and used the distraction of Judy's own laugh as his advantage, challenged Judy to the playful mudball fight in the pit of mud...

...by throwing the first quickly-shaped mud-ball at Judy, which hit her to the right side of her head.

Judy was caught off guard by Nick's throw, which knocked her over and to the mud.

And after Judy stood back on her feet, having lost her antlers from above of her mud-covered head...

...she shook herself rapidly to get rid off as much of the mud as possible from her fur and clothes.

And then, Judy took the look at Nick and saw...

...that the fox-kitten was giggling heartily at this.

Though having been caught off guard by Nick's sly move of challenge, Judy managed - quite easily this time - to keep her temper from exploding out of fury, despite the fact that this playful challenge came from the fox.

And instead, Judy poured a much bigger ball of mud into her paws, and took another sly look at Nick as the fox-kitten was distracted by his laughter.

"So, you want to play rough, do ya? Was that a challenge, Slick-Nick, huh?" Judy whispered slyly.

And without hesitating, Judy threw the mud-ball towards Nick as the fox-kitten was hardly trying to hold his laugh back.

However, his laugh was cut immediately as Judy's thrown Nick's head sized mud-ball unexpectedly hit him, knocking him over to the mud.

And now, it was Judy's time to laugh...

...as Nick stood up from the mud and shook the extra mud off him.

And then, Nick took the look at Judy, with the expression of his face that told to Judy that the fox-kitten was not offended of Judy's thrown at all...

...'cause Nick knew that he was one who started this in the first place... as an challenge to the mud-ball fight.

"Let me guess, Judy... I think that you just..." Nick was about to say, until he was quickly interrupted by Judy...

...as Judy threw another but this time smaller mud-ball at Nick, which hit Nick to his forehead, knocking him over on his back to the mud once again.

"...accepted your challenge? Yes, yes I did." Judy finished for Nick, with the sly grin and sly tone of voice.

Nick got up from the mud once more, but this time he skipped shaking the extra mud off him.

"Alright Judy... it's war then!" Nick playfully declared, as Nick poured some mud-balls into his paws.

"Enough of talking... let's war!" Judy also playfully declared, pouring a bit bigger balls into his paws.

"Ready to get the mud-bath?" Nick playfully asked.

"Already having the one. But are you ready to lose, fox?" Judy asked back, playfully.

And from that, Judy and Nick started the playful war-like mud-ball fight all around of the pit of mud.

Judy used her bigger size and bigger balls she wrapped from the mud into her paws as an advantage to best Nick in the playful fight.

But Nick, instead of brute strength, used the foxes natural speed and the clever mind to dodge quickly and smoothly - despite wadding in the mud that nearly reached to Judy's waist - Judy's bigger mud-balls.

Nick started even to use the thick wood bark to cover himself from Judy's balls, during of which he grabbed some mud to his paws and aimed his own mud-balls to Judy's unguarded places to get her into the defensive position and her focus away from him.

This successfully worked, as Nick tirelessly and repeatedly threw the mud-ball after another towards Judy, Judy got no chance to answer to fire with fire... or to mud with mud, in this case.

Judy lifted her arms and paws up to cover her faces against Nick's mud-balls.

"Hey! Nick! Nick! NICK! This is unfair! Give me even a five minutes!" Judy playfully pleaded, as she found out herself to be at Nick's mercy.

"No way, Judy! Everything is allowed in the mud-fight." Nick stated victoriously., as he started to walk towards the another side of the pit of mud...

And after having slyly managed to turn Judy's attention to elsewhere, the little fox started to sneak away towards the edge of the pit of mud, using Judy's distraction as his advantage to best her.

Judy had, meanwhile, turned around to cover herself better with her back, taking most of the hits of the mud-balls... as she was creating the bigger mud-ball to return tenfold to mud with mud with one throw.

"Alright, Slick Nick, you wanna play reeaaaally rough, then let's play reeaaaally rough!" Judy said dramatically.

And after the mud-ball was big enough that she was still able to carry it, Judy turned around and lifted the ball over her head... caring nothing about the extra mud dropping off from the ball over herself.

"Alright, Mr. Little Sneaky! Prepare for...!"

Judy's was immediately cut off words as she found out that there was nobody standing in the spot where Nick was standing a second ago.

There was some fox's footprints in the mud, but most of them were swallowed or covered by the mud, making it impossible for Judy to track him now by following his footprints in the mud.

Judy looked everywhere to see even a one single hint of the fox-kitten... but nothing.

"Nick? Nick? Where did you go now?"

There was then the sudden and loud snapping sound, which sounded like something heavy had just stepped on the branch lying in the ground, that had snapped in two under of the weight that it wasn't able to hold.

The sudden sound of snapping branch started Judy, that her fox-ears jumped upright and her whole head jumped from down to the direction, from where the sound had came from.

Surrendering completely to her rabbit instincts, unless her father had turned her rabbit instincts to the fox instincts along with her physical form... Judy dropped the mud-ball off her paws and started - slowly and with the caution - to wade towards the direction of the source of sound...

Which seemed to come from some rocks, along with the hint of the sound's causer, because a some remaining footprints seemed to lead right towards the rocks, towards of which she was right now heading.

And after Judy had reached to the other side of the pit, Judy bounced partially off from the mud to hang in the edge of the pit...

...so that Judy was able to peek over the edge to the behind of the rocks and logs to see that was Nick hiding behind of them.

However, there was not anybody in there.

Not even in half snapped branch.

All what she saw was the punch of rocks and logs... but not any foxes.

However, taking note to the remaining and still into the mud fading footprints in the mud that led to this corner, Judy began to wonder if Nick might have been hiding under or behind of the logs or the rocks... or in the holes between of the rocks.

Such of opinions made Judy to believe that maybe Nick has just changed the game... from the mud fight to the Hide and Seek game.

Judy shook her head and chuckled in amusement... as she released herself from her own instincts.

"Alright, Nicky! If its the Hide and Seek you want to play, then let's play. I'm counting in ten." Judy playfully exclaimed loud enough for Nick to hear it certainly.

And after that, Judy waited for... five seconds.

"TEN!" She exclaimed, intentionally skipping counting to ten, because she considered the time, when she had started to look for him after he unexpectedly disappeared from the pit of mud, to be enough of waiting for Nick to go hide to somewhere.

"Alright, Nicky! You were ready or not, here I come." Judy exclaimed, as she was about to bounce up from the pit of mud.

But suddenly...

...there was a quickly made sharp-sounding sound, coming from behind of her.

The sudden sound breaking the deep silence in the area startled Judy badly that it caused her to turn hastily to the direction of the sound... in the wrong time.

Because the sound and turning her attention to it, along with her muddy feet against the mud-covered and thus slippy rocks caused her to lose her foothold after her attention was drawn to elsewhere, which nearly caused her to lose her grip from the rocks in the edge of the pit, from which she was holding to pull herself up from the pit.

Judy landed not-so-roughly on her stomach to the rock, with a small grunt in pain as she landed with all her weight to the rock and was afterwards about to slide freely back to the pit of mud, which meant that she was about to be covered by the large layer of mud again.

However, Judy quickly tightened her grip from the rocks and barely managed to keep her hold from the rocks in the edge of the pit before she nearly fell back to the pit of mud and got herself covered by the mud again.

And after she had tightened her grip from the rocks, Judy started to recall the sound in her mind...

...which was not at least the growl of any ground predator that eats foxes, nor the sound of the eagle-owl.

In fact, it sounded like the whistle.

Judy let out the deep sight... knowing that there's no reason to surrender herself under of her own instincts...

...and especially knowing the _true causer_ of all of this.

"Very funny, Nick." Judy murmured under her breath, after she had recognized the sound as the whistle.

That young "dumb" fox-kitten was mischievously playing with her again, like back in the glacier before this journey.

And after that, Judy carefully allowed herself to fall back down to the pit, but she did it so that the surface of the layer of mud in the bottom of the bit reached her to her waist... even though she knew that the fur in her upper body was dirty from the mud.

It was then when Judy decided, that once this is over, she'll go wind the lake from somewhere to wash the mud off her and clean her fox-fur.

Judy led out of her mouth the loud moan out of frustration, because she really hated to be washed up - especially in her days of childhood and even in this age - and for the reason.

Before all of this, her mother always urged her to go to bathe in the river going next of their village after playing either with her sisters or other animal friends, in which she always got herself dirty - and yet her father joined to her mother's side by dragging her to the river in his arms when she refused to go to bathe in the river's ice cold water because of the nearby glacier.

And yet her mother had spent more than just one hour of finished each washing, as she had went through Judy's body from her toes to the black tips of her ears while cleaning up cleaning up every single spot in her fur and washing many times over her sensitive ears to get all dirt off her, reminding her daughter that...

 _As a daughter of the Tribe Chief, she needed to be clean every time... not partially... nor close... but completely and perfectly clean_.

Even though her fur's hair was short, as well as all the bunnies fur's hair is, going through even a single little detail of her fur and a bit painfully (to Judy) brushing and combing her fur and her ears many times over for hours in the river's ice cold water felt torturous to Judy... at least back in that age.

But in the case of the foxes, whose red fur's hair was a bit longer and the foxes fur was even thicker and bushy than the rabbits, including the foxes long bushy tail compared to the bunnies own furry bobtail...

...washing and cleaning up the fox fur would be a longer, torturous and more difficult process.

However, Judy was snapped out of her thoughts immediately, as she suddenly heard a small rocks rolling along the bigger rocks, telling to her that someone was moving along the rocks... and it came from the same direction from where the whistle came as well.

And with that, Judy didn't waste her time for thinking about to her torturous bathing moments in her childhood but decided to go find Nick, believing the fox cub to be hiding in somewhere in the area around of the source of the whistle.

And, even for once, Judy started to act like the foxes by sneaking - at the same time as she waded in the mud - as silent as she could and spreading her arms open while heading towards the source of the whistle... like the fox stalking for the rabbit as its next dinner.

Ironically... The parties have changed, because Nick was the fox and she was a rabbit... or at least the rabbit in the fox skin.

Well, it didn't matter right now.

"Alright, Nicky... you're trapped now. And soon I will be in the perfect spot for the..." Judy whispered, as she prepared to surprise unsuspecting fox kitten hiding in the rocks... with the foxes own style.

But suddenly...

"OUCH!" Judy yelped in fox-style, as she unexpectedly felt something hitting to the back of her head... which was followed by two more similar hits to her neck.

Judy lifted her left arm by her instincts upwards and landed it over the back of her head and her neck to stroke them to get the small feel of pain to fade away...

...until she felt something watery, cold and slimy against her paw's inner side.

Judy pulled her paw in front of her faces and took the look at her paw, from which she realized that she was hit by nothing else but the mud ball.

"Nick!" Judy snarled, as she turned around to look there, from where she assumed the mud ball having came from...

...realizing that Nick was, playfully of course, luring her completely to the wrong direction, while he himself changes his positions around of the pit of mud in hide... and waiting for the opportunity to strike then when she last expects it.

At least Judy realized that this was far from the game of Hide and Seek...

...and instead, the game has suddenly changed into Stalk and Strike, which Judy has heard to be the predators' cub favorite game and the lesson of stalking and hunting their prey.

"So you want to play rough, do ya?" Judy asked from still hiding Nick, as she turned to walk towards the direction, from where to the back of hear head hit mud ball came from.

"Alright then, Nick. Let's play rough." Judy said, as she was about to head to the mud ball's coming direction to find Nick... and this time, not bothering to sneak to there but to wade to there as loud as she wanted.

But suddenly, she suddenly heard quick but loud _psst!_ behind of her...

...which got Judy's attention.

Judy snorted loudly, this time out of frustration and even in annoyance.

"Alright, Nick! Honestly this is..." Judy attempted to say with a bit scolding tone as she turned around t othe direction of that "psst"...

...but once she did so...

" _SURPRISE!_ "

From the sudden shout startled Judy had no time to react as she saw Nick leaping straight towards her from behind of the rocks, holding the large mudball above of his head and was prepared to throw it at her.

And as Nick was about to land into the mud in the bottom of the pit, the fox-kitten eventually threw the mud-ball at Judy with all the strength their little fox-kitten had... before he eventually dove into the mud.

Judy looked at the mud-ball coming straight towards her.

" _Oh, no._ " Judy whispered dramatically, as she just stood in still and did nothing to get out of the mud-ball's way.

In fact, Nick had threw the mud-ball from the close distance that she was left with no time to jump out of its way.

Nick's mud-ball hit straight to Judy's faces, which knocked Judy off her feet and caused her to fall backwards and to the mud.

As both of them were beneath of the surface of mud, it was for a moment deep silence upon the area.

But it did not took long for Nick to re-appear from the mud, completely covered by the mud yet again.

And the first thing the fox did, was to look with his eyes for Judy.

"Judy? Still alive or dead?" Nick exclaimed dramatically.

And after that...

...Judy re-appeared as well from beneath of the surface of the mud... covered by the mud as much as Nick.

And afterwards of her re-appearance from the mud, Judy instantly started with the disgust to spit the mud out of her mouth and wave her arms alternatively up and down to shake some of the mud off her.

And after several waves of her arms and spits, Judy started to wipe the mud off her faces, from beneath of the cheeks at the top of the head and from her fox-ears. And after that, Judy started shake herself to get rid of all remaining mud on her.

That of course didn't shook off all the mud, leaving the several mud stain on her and even more mud messed with her fox fur... including the extra weight in her fluffy fox tail due to the mud... but she had managed to shake off at least most of the muddy coat.

Nick, not bothering to shake off his muddy coat just yet, simply climbed to the edge of the pit and sat on one of the rocks... and simply followed from aside as Judy shook off her own muddy coat.

And after that, Judy turned to Nick... and met the fox's smug grin on his faces as he looked at her.

"Cunning against brute force, and the brute force dissipated. The score of the game. Little fox: one, and Mrs. Grumpy: zero." Nick smugly declared.

However, instead of shouting at the fox out of the border crossed frustration and annoyance - as she had done earlier yesterday - Judy started to shout at Nick in the protesting tone.

"No way, Nicky! You cheated! You won the mud fight only because you cheated! By blending into the surrounding and luring me to the wrong direction before you got me off guard by backstabbing way from behind of my back. That wasn't fair move." Judy dramatically protested.

However, Nick wasn't convinced of Judy's protest.

"It's the nature of the Stalk and Strike game, Judy. Nothing isn't fair in live if wishes to survive in the wild. With this game, we predators - including we foxes - learn the secrets of our instincts and learn both hunt our prey and avoid our enemies. Nick explained.

"But I'm pretty surprised that... you're actually one of the dumbest foxes I've ever encountered in my life." Nick added.

Judy felt a bit offended of this comment from such of fox like Nick, but decided to keep her temper under control.

"And your point with that is?" Judy questioned.

Nick didn't waste time but started to explain immediately.

"The point of my comment is, that you're seemingly giving yourself up to the danger, even without knowing that and unintentionally yet." Nick started.

"To be honest, Judy, I didn't expect you to be that dumb enough to let your guard down, taking the risk of possible danger that is trying to get around and ambush you from behind... and not a mention about being dumb enough to go straight towards the notorious sounds coming out of nowhere... without even knowing that is there some hungry animal, some bigger than fox, such like wolf, bear or lynx, stalking your unsuspecting self out of your eyesight and waiting for a good opportunity to attack." Nick explained.

Now it was Judy's turn to be unconvinced of Nick's explanations... plus, a bit offended of being called dumb.

"Dumb enough to go straight to the danger, eh? Without knowing that is it either hungry wolf, bear or lynx, eh?" Judy said with a bit offended tone.

Nick answered to this with the nod and smug grin.

"Well, two things, Nicky." Judy said with the challenging tone.

"First, I didn't suspect any danger here at all." Judy claimed at first.

"And secondly, I already knew that it was you all of time. Just thought from the start that you wanted to just play Hide and Seek game, that's all." Judy finished.

Nick chuckled at this claim heartily.

"Yeah, sure you did, as you acted like the frightened bunny a second you heard the sound I caused behind of these rocks... You either have spent too much time with the bunnies that you have probably adopted their instincts as the replacement for your fox instincts... or I guess that you believe yourself to be bunny instead of fox, don't you, Judy." Nick a bit teased.

Much to Judy's annoyance, that latter from Nick's mouth reminded Judy about those two dumb moose she met short before Nick...

...but, however, she was also secretly surprised that Nick's guess reached a bit close of the truth, that Judy was in fact bunny... bunny trapped magically in the fox skin by her late father.

"Actually, I am indeed..." Judy started...

...until she suddenly interrupted herself after realizing that what she was going to say, and began to immediately explore other alternatives to excuse herself and evade the truth of her true identity...

...because just like with the moose before meeting Nick, the fox-kitten would do nothing else but see her crazed or something, which would be followed by the hysterical laughter from the tiny mouth of the fox-kitten out of disbelief, if Nick was one of those who do not literally believe in spirits and magic...

...like Judy did after underestimating or - more likely - even blaming the Spirits for making her life miserable mess since the very moment she received her totem to taunt her, haunt her and even torture her like this.

"...uh..." Judy said, gabbling by words as she was trying to find a perfect excuse to evade telling the truth to Nick.

"...developed the bunnies instincts! Yeah! That's it! I acted on my instincts like bunny in purpose! That's the truth!" Judy excused, after having finally found the perfect words.

But much to her surprise, Nick suddenly stuck out a tongue in disgust.

"You're making me a bit sick after making me feel like I was stalking the bunny instead of you... and I don't even like the bunnies. And it's not about them to be nothing but all skin and bone and the taste is too chewy, but..." Nick tried to say...

...until he suddenly and unexpectedly got direct hit from the mud-ball to the left side of his faces, which was enough to knock the fox-kitten off from the rock his was sitting on and make him to fall back into the pit... where his free fall ended up to the dive into the mud, through of the big splash.

And after Nick, once again covered by the mud, appeared from the mud - and after wiping the mud off from his face and spitting some mud off his mouth... the fox kitten looked to the direction of Judy, because the mud ball had came right from there.

And as an proof of it, Judy had the smug smile in her fox lips.

"What was that for?" From a sudden back-stabbing strike a bit surprised Nick asked.

"For the lack of respect towards the bunnies, Sneaky Nicky. Those little long-ears, flatfeet and cottontails at least bothers to earn their living with hard work, unlike you and the other foxes... uh, I meant... WE! Yes, we! We foxes do, as we earn our own living with scheming, stealing and tricking other animals and..." Judy said partially sarcastically and humorously...

...until she herself, by her own turn, got a hit from dual mud-balls to her faces, knocking her yet again on her back to the mud.

And ans she rose back on her feet, she heard Nick declaring something with the similar way as she did as an payback.

"And that was for offending the honor and the honesty of the foxes by sympathizing bunnies that have definitely spoiled you and turned you against your own kind, Judy!" Nick declared.

"And... in the name of honor and honesty of the foxes... I declare the mud war against the bunny sympathizers!" Nick declared with the eager grin in his face.

After shaking the mud off her and wiping the mud off her faces, once again mud-covered Judy turned to Nick... ready to join to the fox-kitten's game once again.

"And... me, Judy... in the name of the rabbits will to do honest and hard work to earn their living honestly... accept your challenge!" Judy declared with the playful tone and smug grin on her faces.

"We're at war, bunny sympathizer! ready to lose for second time?" Nick asked, as he started to pick the mud balls from the pit's mud.

"Let the best bun - uh, I meant - best fox win!" Judy responded, as she as well started to form from the mud the big balls in attempt to defeat Nick with the large sizes of the mud balls instead of the large number, of which Nick seemed to favor.

"Let the mud war begin!" Nick declared, as he prepared to throw his balls towards Judy.

"To the bitter end!" Judy responded, lifting her mud ball over her head and preparing to throw it at Nick.

And, forwards from the first throws, the foxes started their another mud fight in the pit of mud.

 **to be continue...**

 **I gotta stop this chapter right here.**

 **I hoped that you guys liked this chapter.**


	16. Chapter 16: On My Way part 4

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 16. ON MY WAY PART 4  
**

 **ENJOY THE READING.**

After their playful mud-ball fight in the pit, into which they just did fall, the mud-covered Judy and Nick decided to finally quit from it and instead find the place where they can wash the mud off their clothes and fur.

They had luckily found the perfect place from the small pool in the next of the rock on their way, which water was a bit cold but refreshing, where they decided to camp for a while and use their break time to wash their furs and clothes from the extra mud, what they were unable to wipe out by themselves.

However, before the duo started to wash up their furs, they started at first from their clothes, washing them from the mud but leaving their clothes a wet.

And with that, Judy and Nick gathered together from the nearby forest some wood, branches and leaves and made a brief campfire next to the lake. Just in case to avoid the forest fire, Judy surrounded the campfire with the circle of rocks to prevent the fire from escaping from the campfire.

Nick proved to be a good fire-maker, as the young fox pup found immediately perfect stones, of which rubbing together in the next of a campfire, which was made of from wood, branches and leaves, he got done sparks which ignited the fire onto the campfire.

And another lucky thing, Nick also had the rope with him, which he tied from both ends tightly around of the trunks of the trees in each side of the camp fire, that the rope's middle was above of the campfire so that they were able to put their washed and wet clothes to hang from it and let the fire to dry them.

As smart as Nick was - because he was the fox - Nick tied the rope a bit high above of the campfire, due to the fact that the weight of the water in the clothes may pull the clothes down near of the campfire's flames. It could dry their clothes too much and eventually accidentally burn their clothes.

Walking through the wilderness without the clothes was the last thing what they wanted.

However, they did not need fire so much, because there was a quite open around of the pool, thus allowing the sun above of them to aim its warm beams of light freely against their clothes, drying their clothes along with the camp fire.

And after they had secured the tightness of the knots and the rope around of the tree trunks to make sure that they will not get loose and drop their clothes into the fire, Judy and Nick decided to have a little fun in the pool while washing the mud off their furs.

The water of the pool came running out of the holes in the rock, along with the small waterfall from above of them. And swimming beneath of them, both Nick and Judy were able to wash the most of remaining mud off their furs under of the running water.

And after that, both of them, while waiting for their clothes getting dry before they would be able to continue on their journey to the Three-Pointed-Mountain where the light touches the earth, they decided together to spend the plenty of time swimming together in the pool... and they spent a plenty of time of swimming in the pool... often diving under the surface among the small fishes and through of through of water shooting bright beams of light that brightened the whole water of the lake... and often playfully splashing water onto each other near of the beach of the pool.

And, just humorously, Judy often grabbed from Nick's waist and lifted the cheering and laughing fox pup from the water into the air, and swung him around of herself in her paws like Nick was "flying" above of the water.

And just once, Judy surprised Nick by swimming beneath of him, before she surprisingly jumped out of the water and caught Nick to sit onto her shoulders, much to the fox pup's surprise and delight.

Nick also made a harmless prank on Judy, as the fox pup once dived under the surface and swam towards Judy's tail, grabbing from it with both of his paws and pulled it down, making Judy to yelp out of surprise and slight pain.

But as an payback for Nick, as the fox pup's head appeared above of the pool's water surface laughing heartily at Judy, Judy sucked some water from the pool into her mouth and burst water out of her mouth onto Nick's faces.

And when the accounts between of the fox and bunny in the fox-skin had been leveled, they both burst into hearty laughter.

And when it was time for the duo to continue their journey, once their clothes were dry enough from the warmth of the campfire's fire and the sun's beams of light...

... both Judy and Nick, though a bit reluctantly, quit their swimming time, which left to them the good and refreshing feelings, came out of the pool and dried themselves up before dressing into their dry clothes and extinguished the campfire with the pool's water.

And because of the pool's water came out of the rock, the water was fresh and clean, and thus drinkable.

It was a pure luck of theirs, because their own water bottles, which Nick had carried with him and had shared one or couple with Judy, were almost empty.

They filled each of their bottles of water with the pool's drinkable water, before they continued on their way to the forest.

However...

Judy and Nick didn't reach a quite far from the pool into the forest, before...

"HEY! YOU THERE! HOLD ON, EH?" The familiar voice called after them, heavily panting between of words, as if someone who just called them had run for a long time without stopping at all, without stopping at all.

"YEAH! PLEASE, WAIT UP!" Called another heavily panting and familiar voice.

Judy frowned, because she knew those voices far too well... having heard those voices and having met their owners earlier, before meeting Nick back in the place where she was caught in the trap.

So that she did not need to guess that whose were incoming from the forest.

"Oh, no... not those guys again." Judy murmured...

...as the familiar pair of moose rushed out of the bushes towards them, nearly fagged out from the rapid and unstoppable running and heavily panting, but they still kept running until they reached to them.

Bucky and Pronk, once they reached to the fox duo, immediately rushed behind of Judy for some protection from something they have apparently been running away for several past days.

Pronk leaned out of exhaustion against Judy, who was forced to hold on from the larger and heavier moose with all her strength to prevent him from falling over to the ground, much to Judy's annoyance... while Bucky landed on his butt to the ground out of exhaustion.

"What a nice... nice to see... see you again. How's... how's it doing... foxie?" Pronk asked, panting heavily for the breath between of his words.

"Yeah! You and... uh... that smallish todd?" Bucky said, as he spotted a bit dumbfounded Nick next to Judy.

"GEE! I didn't know you had a little brother." Pronk said as he too spotted Nick in next to Judy.

"Hi, little buddy." Pronk greeted, as he lifted his hoof-fingered hand up and landed it onto Nick's head, rubbing it, to which Nick reacted by backing off, heartily giggling of that.

Now Judy was in her turn dumbfounded, as she couldn't believe what did she just heard coming from the moose's mouth. Nick as her a little brother?!

"Well, actually, we just bumped into each other shortly after I met you two and I... uh... never mind of that. He's serves as a guide to me, and... uh, kind of... my travel companion. Just a companion, that's all." Judy explained, leaving deliberately the word "friend" out, because that she was still bunny trapped magically in the form of the fox... and it sounded a bit weird if the bunny calls the fox, her natural enemy, as a friend.

"And can you... please... stop... leaning on me?! You press almost as much as a mammoth, depending on what you eat and how much you eat per day." Judy said as she impatiently pushed with her rabbit-fox combined strength Pronk off her, that the moose, without the resistance, fell on his butt to the ground... in the next of his brother.

Judy then backed off a little bit away from the moose, until she was standing in next to Nick.

"And now, what are you guys doing here? You look like you've been running for days without stopping at all. Where's a fire? Or were you two playing tag with one of moose-eating predator(s)? A cougar? Bear? Packs of wolves or saber-tooth-tigers?" Judy listed, after her a bit sarcastic questions for the moose sudden presence.

"Oh, yeah! Right about that!" The moose said in unison.

"There's much bigger threat than just a cougar, wolves, bear and even packs of wolves and saber-tooth-tiger." Bucky said at first.

"Yeah, there's was a bunny, a bunny hunter, with the spear, following us!" Pronk said hastily and with a bit fearful tone of voice after he mentioned the bunny with the spear and who was apparently after them back in the glacier.

"Yeah! And the bunny hunter is right on her way towards us!" Bucky added hastily.

Judy's fox-ears jumped upwards out of surprise after hearing those words.

"A bunny hunter? Jill?" Judy murmured silently, knowing far too well that of whom the moose were speaking of.

But before she could response, she was immediately interrupted by the moose.

"We kept running for the days and nights without food and rest, trying to get as far away as possible from the hunter and her spear. Until we saw you in the woods with that tiny foxy." Bucky added.

"And we-we was thinking if-if we could maybe just-just join you to-to hang out with you-you, guys." Pronk asked, with a bit stuttering words.

"Yeah! Just hang on with you guys, that's all we ask." Bucky added eagerly.

"Yeah, it'd be fun!" Pronk exclaimed.

"And, you-you know, if-if that bunny hunter was-was going to catch up, and-and..." Pronk added, supported with his brother's eagerly nodding head, until he eventually lost his words in middle of everything.

"'Cause you're foxes! Foxes are supposed to be the natural predators of bunnies. So it that bunny hunter catch up, THEN YOU'D EAT IT before she'll eat us!" Bucky continued with the dramatic tone for his brother, as he was searching the right words from his mind.

"That's what we was thinking when we saw you again." Pronk said, as he briefly turned to his brother and then back to Judy and Nick, nodding his head.

Judy couldn't believe that what did she heard again coming from the moose's mouths, which nearly got her to wrinkle her nose out of disgust.

 _They're expecting me to eat the bunny hunter, who happens to be my own sister?! That's disgusting! You savages! Despite the fact that they're moose, prey mammals and herbivores! They probably do not even know that the bunnies are herbivores as well, though we might eat the fish sometimes bu we very rarely the meat, with the exception of the time of the winter._ Judy thought in her mind.

However, Judy maintained her surprised expression on her face and surprised feelings within her.

"How's that possible? Didn't we lost that hunter back at the glacier?" Judy asked, remembering that she and Nick had narrowly avoided being found by Jill by hiding in the ice cavern within the glacier... afterwards she and Nick had not saw any sign of the hunter's presence, least of even her scent in the air when they left the glaciers behind.

Now the moose were dumbfounded at that question.

"Is this your first time when you've been hunted by the rabbit hunter with the spear eh? If so, you seriously think that she would not follow those?" Pronk asked, as he nodded hi head to the direction behind of Judy and Nick.

Judy and Nick turned to look behind of them and spotted the four through of the forest behind of them walking lines of the foxes foot prints, along with the foot prints of the moose legs hooves.

"They're quite nice and fresh... perfect way for the bunny hunter to track down her neck prey, though she's herself the prey mammal by her species." Bucky added.

This was the moment, when Judy felt herself the complete fool!

Due to the fact that she and Nick had left behind the long lines of the fox tracks for Jill to follow them wherever they're going, until eventually Jill would catch them up - even though they didn't know when but she will, that was the fact. And the next thing what she'll do if to greet them all, especially her and her fox form, with her spear like she did the last time she met her after being freed from the trap.

Judy also remembered the hardened look in Jill's face when she met her again, though in her fox form. Even though she failed to see or sense it until Jill lifted her spear up into the fatal blow in front of her...

...but now, even so far away from each other, Judy was able to see Jill in her eyes again through of the memory from their last reunion. And now Judy was able to sense in Jill's faces the pure hatred and the blind desire to kill her once in sight, though Judy still didn't know that why...

...but Judy at least knew that judging from Jill's look in her face and her burning desire to kill her, she would not give up from hunting her before she's dead, and due to her narrow escape from her grazed sister, Judy was definitely not willing to wait the next round with her sister, not in this form.

And the distances between of them and Jill, and between of them and the Tree-Pointed Mountain was the another question.

They still had a long way to go to reach to the mountain, day or two, maybe even more... but even though they might have a one-two-day head start, depending on that when Jill has found their tracks and eventually realized that they were gone, Jill has certainly found and used a shortcut to make the journey faster.

Who knows if Jill had already reached ahead of them... waiting for them in the ambush.

Judy felt that she had no time for the round two with her sister, if she wished to get to the Three-Pointed Mountain alive to change back into bunny.

And so, they needed to either lose her or somehow make her confused with the tracks and the directions... at least long enough to get more time to reach far away from Jill's reach.

And so, Judy began to think of a useful solution.

Covering tracks off was a very bad and time wasting idea.

Trying to get around through of some tricky place, such like quagmire or a high rock bed was also a bad and even a suicidal idea... and yet Judy did not wanted to get her big sister into the life-threatening trouble.

Trying to lead Jill into the wrong direction by going into the another direction for some distance, before covering the tracks and returning back to the right direction was also a bad idea, because Judy did not also wanted to get Jill to lost in the wilderness, where either harsh conditions or hungry bunnies eating predators may claim her.

The solution needed to be that as a result Jill's progress in following of their tracks would be slowed down rather than lure her into the danger or get her lost in the wilderness.

After thinking for the solution to their problem for a ten minutes with no avail, Judy did not come up with a good solution, which would be good for both parties... for them and for Jill.

However, when Judy lowered her head down when she was about to reveal the bad news of hers, she eventually heard the mammoth-like loud _TOOT-TOOT_ trumpeting, and which was coming from nearby the area.

And after when the loud sound faded off, Judy's head and fox-ears suddenly jumped upwards and upright...

...as the trumpeting of the mammoths apparently gave her some idea.

"I think that I just got an idea!" Judy eagerly informed to the others.

 **...**

Later...

"Okay, This is now a really weird idea, Judy. Even I wouldn't have invented this idea." Nick complained with the dumbfounded feelings...

...as he found himself, as well as Judy and the moose duo riding in the backs/necks/shoulders of the traveling herd of the woolly mammoths!

This was completely Judy's idea, because hitching a ride from the herd of mammoths, who were luckily heading to the same direction as they were and they can travel day and night, almost without stopping, they might be able to get even more head start from Jill, or that their own tracks and scents mixed with the mammoths own tracks and scent would send Jill into confusion.

Mammoths, luckily for them, weren't bothered by the hitchhikers - even though two of them were foxes - traveling on their hunchbacks, shoulders or necks. They just kept going towards whatever for they were heading.

Because of their species small sizes, traveling on the mammoths hunchbacks or necks wasn't problem for Judy and Nick...

...however, trying to fit on the hunchback of one mammoths together, it brought for the moose brothers a little difficulties... yet arguments.

"Hey, don't push back there! I'm driving here, you see?" Bucky said to Pronk, as the red-brown moose was sitting on the mammoth's neck and holding from the mammoth's ears to "drive" him.

"When-when then I can have a turn to drive?" Pronk asked from the back, as the golden-brown moose was hanging on their shared mammoth's hunchback on his stomach that his arms and legs were hanging too.

"Sorry, little bro... but adults are driving here." Bucky responded, unable to turn his attention from forward to his brother.

"Wha...?! Am I not an adult in your eyes?! You think that I can't drive or am I not allowed to drive at all, huh?" Pronk asked with a bit offended tone and feelings of his brothers words.

"In my skin, you would find out that this is not as easy as it looks, even for me. You have to focus in this all the time or then comes the mammoth-accident. Just watch how I do it... that's why you got the back seat." Bucky said back to Pronk.

"Yeh, yeh, yeh, very funny, Bucky." Pronk said sarcastically.

"You always take the front seat for yourself just because you're older and me, and you're giving me the back seat every time just because I'm younger... and just look at me... Always hanging in the back like I'm some kind of hunted prey." Pronk said as he complained his position on the mammoth's hunchback.

"Awww... crybaby." Bucky said, teasing a bit his brother.

On their way, the herd of mammoths along with their hitchhikers crossed the paths with the group of small traveling mammals.

The group was formed by two raccoons, probably twin brothers...

...one woodchuck, who was napping in the next of the mammoth's path, until he was disturbed by the the mammoths thundering steps against the ground...

...orange-brown furred tundra stoat...

...the family of three field mouses, one mother and two sons...

...and the rabbit family, with mother-rabbit, father-rabbit and their thirty little rabbit kitten.

The group remained to stand in still and stare the passing mammoths, whom the animals submissively allowed the pass.

Of course, the sight of the wandering mammoths were the impressing and great sight to every smaller animal...

...but the animals were even more surprised after seeing two foxes and two moose as a hitchhikers in the shoulders or backs of the mammoths.

And upon seeing the group of mammals when passing them...

"Hey! Are you going in the same direction? C'mon! Hop in!" Nick encouraged the group of animals.

And in order to encourage them even more to hop onto the mammoths backs or shoulders, Nick started to sing the song he had sang the several days earlier since he and Judy left from the glacier.

 **Nick:** _HEY, LISTEN, EVERYBODY, I'M ON MY WAY AGAIN_

 _AND YOU ALL ARE WELCOME TO JOIN ME IF YOU LIKE._

After hearing the first lines of Nick's song, the astonished expressions one by one vanished from the animals faces and were replaced by the smiles and enthusiasm to join the foxes and moose to ride in the backs of the mammoths.

The rabbits, raccoons and tundra stoat immediately rushed towards and mammoths legs and climbed along of their thick in their legs, heading towards the mammoths backs.

Only the woodchuck remained behind with the astonished expression and a bit hesitating attitude...

...until one of the mammoths wrapped his trunk around of the surprised woodchuck and lifted him off the ground.

"Jump on the back, little one." The Mammoth, on whose head one of the raccoons was sitting, said and tossed with his trunk the woodchuck onto his back.

The woodchuck landed in front of the mother-rabbit, who was sitting in the back of the same mammoth, along with fifteen behind of her back sitting little rabbit kittens, one of which even waved to the woodchuck from behind of her brothers and sisters.

 **Nick:** _WE SHALL TRAVEL THROUGH OF WILDERNESS, THROUGH OF CHALLENGES_

 _TOGETHER AS THE BEST FRIENDS EVER._

The field mouses, who were the last ones, hurried towards the last passing mammoth by climbing to the tree, which the mammoth passed by.

The mouses hurried to the end of the small branch, from which they then jumped towards the mammoth...

...with the little mice grabbed from their mother's tail...

...and the mother mouse herself grabbed from the last mammoth's tail, pulling a bit the mammoth's tail down with her weight.

The mammoth reacted to this by trumpeting loudly in pain.

"D'OOOOH! Carefully with my sensitive tail back there!" The mammoth pleaded, as he gritted his teeth and as his head sunk between of his shoulder in pain.

Once Nick had checked that all animals, along with their moose companions, were safely on the shoulders of backs of the mammoths behind, Nick then turned to the lead mammoth, on which back Judy was sitting.

Judy also turned to Nick and gave to the fox-kitten the winking look and smile, as her mammoth stepped into the lake in the mammoth's path.

"I urge to beware! It's the mammoths bath-time!" Judy called to Nick, the moose and every animal traveling with the mammoths and them.

And one by one, each mammoth stepped into the water and started to wade in the water after their lead-mammoth.

"AND ONE MORE TIME!" Nick exclaimed.

 **Nick:** _HEY, LISTEN, EVERYBODY, I'M ON MY WAY AGAIN_

 _AND I CAN'T WAIT TO BE WHERE I'M HEADING_

The mammoths sunk nearly completely to the water, leaving their heads on the surface, which forced the animals to move onto their heads.

Nick, however and while still singing his song, instead rushed onto his mammoth's trunk, which the mammoth... as well as the lead-mammoth and the others behind of it... lifted their trunks from the water and into the air.

"C'mon... higher!" Nick said, as he asked the mammoth to lift his trunk even higher by waving his paw upwards.

The mammoth, with the humorous smile, did as Nick told him to do and lifted his trunk pretty quickly to a higher

"WHOA!" Nick exclaimed in middle of his song, a bit surprised of this sudden act that forced him to crab from the trunk with his paws to prevent himself from losing his balance and falling off the elephant's trunk into the river.

And once he and the end of the trunk were higher in the air, Nick Nick loosened his paws grip from the mammoth's trunk and stood up to stand on the mammoth's trunk.

While singing, Nick turned to the moose and the rest as hitchhikers traveling animals in the backs of the other mammoths.

The raccoons, tundra stoat, the woodchuck, the rabbit couple and all the rabbit kittens had followed Nick's example and climbed onto the twelve mammoths into the air above of the water's surface lifted trunks.

It was easier for the small mammals, but Bucky and Pronk had a bit problems, due to their size, hang on their mammoth's trunk when it was lifted up into air.

Bucky, who was hanging at the end of the mammoth's trunk, tried to keep himself balanced on the trunk, until he eventually failed and slipped along of the mammoth's trunk and landed on his butt onto Pronk's shoulders, much to his brothers annoyance.

 **Nick:** _YEAH, CAN'T WAIT OT BE WHERE I'M HEADING_

Nick then turned back to Judy, who had remained to stand onto the mammoth's head, but had turned back to her travel companions with the smile on her face... and even had joined to Nick's song, much to Nick's delight.

 **Judy & Nick:** _HOME SWEET HOME, YEAH, THAT'S WHAT WE'RE HEADING FOR_

 _AND IT'S WHAT OUR HEARTS DESIRES MOST OF ALL_

 **Judy** : _AND TOWARDS HO'OOOOOOME..."who-who-_ WHOAAAA! _"_

Her mammoth's small bouncing motion against the bottom of the lake caused Judy to struggle to keep her balance, until she totally lost it as she leaned too much backwards and fell into the water...

...until one of the herd's dismounted mammoths wrapped his trunk around of her pouring wet body and lifted Judy out of the water, and placed her onto his head, after he had shaken Judy with his trunk to dry at first, not wanting the pouring wet hitchhikers onboard.

This got Nick to laugh heartily, before he finished his song for Judy.

 **Nick:** _YEAH, TOWARDS HOME I'M ON MY WAY._

And at the end of his song, Nick lifted his paws high into the air and allowed the last lines of his song to echo in the air, as the mammoths with their hitchhikers continued their going through of the lake.

"Beautiful song, eh, Bro?" Pronk asked, under of his brother's weight as the moose remained to hang on from the mammoth's upright trunk.

"Definitely, bro." Bucky answered.

 **TO BE CONTINUE...**

 **I gotta stop this chapter right here.**

 **I hoped that you guys liked this chapter.**

 **It is not an easy thing to continue one story, when there's several others yet unfinished.**

 **Fourteenth chapter is on its way.**

 **Until the next time, see ya!**


	17. Chapter 17: Mammoth Ride

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 17. MAMMOTH RIDE  
**

 **ENJOY THE READING.**

The day soon turned into the night...

...and without stopping in anywhere for the night, the herd mammoths, on which Judy, Nick and the moose were still riding, kept their journey to whatever they were heading for.

Most of the small animals, whom had hitchhiked on the backs of the mammoths, they have long time ago jumped off the backs of mammoths, and with their thanks for the mammoths for the ride, they had continued their own journey on foot.

Only the foxes and moose remained onboard of the mammoths, continuing their own journey towards the Three-Pointed Mountain...

...and trying to get far away from following Jill as quickly as possible...

...even though the mammoths were the very ones that do not have a rush to anywhere, so the foxes and the moose did not help but to settle on the ride that the Mammoths had agreed to grant to them, as well as to the mammoths walking speed.

They had already reached to the open field next of the another mighty and snow- and glacier-covered mountains and where there were some spruce trees standing scattered all around of the fields.

It also happened to be a quite bright, peaceful and beautiful night...

...though there was to be heard the loud snoring from the direction of the moose brothers, as they had already fell asleep while hanging - both like the hunted meat - in the backs of their shared mammoth, and even for the moose, their snoring was a quite loud.

The lead mammoth had coiled her furry trunk between of her tusks, where Judy was at the moment lying on her back and relaxing, as she looked up to the night-blue sky, which was filled with the glowing stars.

Staring the stars reminded Judy all of those times - when she yet was a bunny and a younger bunny girl - when she used to spent her time either with her favorite and extremely adorable niece Cotton and with the bunch of her little sisters and brothers by lying on their backs in the open hilly grass fields during of the bright nights when the night-blue sky was filled with the stars...

...where they had either gazed the stars, looking for the constellations of the animals with their eyes, or Judy had spent her time by telling some stories to the little bunny kittens he had heard from her father and his grandpa, creating around of the children an atmosphere full of both fun and excitement with the stories.

This night seemed to be one of those night...

...with the exceptions that she wasn't in the bunny's skin, she wasn't at the grass fields back in home, and yet she wasn't the one telling some stories to anybody, at least not her kind in the bunny skin, and so on.

However, there was at least Nick in the presence... but Nick happened to be the only one who was telling some things to her while the fox was sitting on the mammoth's right tusk.

"The Foxtopia locates near from the rocky area running river, that's called the Salmon Run. There lives our neighbors, the grizzly bears. From all the animals, even from the predators, the grizzly bears that lives there treats us foxes as their honorable neighbors, and we gladly trade with them about the food... salmons, blueberries, honey and grouses, so that all of us will be happy and that there's a peace between of us. Couple of my friends of them I've already told you about, the brother bears Koda and Kenai, showed me one their kind working as the bee nurses in the forest, that was part of their territory, full of flowers and beehives in the trees, from of which they were gathering the honey. I tried to same thing by myself once and I myself climbed near of one beehive to remove the small part of the honeycomb to lick the honey away, though the bears had told me to be careful with and not disturb the short-tempered bees-filled beehive and yet they had ordered me to use a thick bear coat over of my body and head in case of the bee-stings, which did not mostly bother them due to their own thick fur coat."

"Well, I myself learned that the hard way when I accidentally pushed my stick into that part of the beehive to where I shouldn't. And since then I still feel the stinging itch in my butt, like I've just accidentally sat onto the spiky back of grumpy porcupine or something."

"But I have another one..." Nick added, changing the subject.

Though Judy, as she had let go now all her initially distrustful and rude attitude towards Nick aside and warmed to him much more since their first met, was willingly listening Nick's stories, the mammoths nearby rolled their eyes and let the deep moaning out of well hidden frustration...

...hinting to the fact that the mammoths probably weren't talkative animals or then they just weren't a quite fond of with the such of energetic animals who talk the countless hours without stopping.

"There was a one bear from the Salmon Run. His name was Br'er Bear and he was fishing on the lake. However, he accidentally got to his hook the killer whale instead of the salmons, that pulled him from the shore into the water and even underwater. And when the killer whale was about to raise to the surface to catch some breath along with Br'er Bear, who was still holding from his a fishing rod. The killer whale wasn't pleased of dragging Br'er Bear with him. So, when the whale was about to dive, it pulled Br'er Bear out of the water and into the air, and slapped him off with its a huge tail. Br'er Bear flied then over the water surface and collided against in middle of the lake floating iceberg, and he got his tongue stuck to an the iceberg. And once he was found in the trouble by the other bears, the only way to save him was to rip off his tongue from the iceberg by force..."

And in this part, Nick stuck his own tongue out of his mouth and kept telling his story.

"...and sithe then he hath to talth like thith all the tithe anth..."

Seeing that the mammoths had enough of the fox kitten long and non-stop talking, as finding out that her own patience was reaching to its limits, Judy gently rose up to sit on her butt on the mammoths coiled trunk and stretched her paws towards Nick's snout...

...grabbing from his snout and lower jaw gently and watching her own claws, trying not to accidentally scratch Nick's snout, and closed his jaws together, with the sly grin on her lips.

"Do you ever stop talking, Nick?" Judy asked, as she gently released from Nick's snout and pulled her paws back.

Nick was about to answer that...

...until the bright glow appeared out of nowhere and lightened the whole night sky, catching Nick's attention away from Judy to the night sky and prompting Nick to jump off from the right tusk to the end of the left tusk to see that what it was.

"OH, LOOK UP THERE!" Nick exclaimed as his expression turned from the surprised into stunned from the sight he saw from the sky.

There was against and across the night-blue sky the long line of _Light_ , which _Northern Lights_ -like flames above of the line were both waving against the night-sky and changing their colors between of the red, yellow, orange and purple colors.

It was magnificent and a beautiful sight against the night-blue star-sky.

"It's the Night Rainbow!" Nick exclaimed, before the fox kitten turned to Judy.

"If you look carefully, you can see among of the _Lights_ traveling Spirits from here." Nick said.

As the fox kitten mentioned about the Spirits, Judy's stunned expression turned into surprise, as she turned to Nick.

"Who-whoa! Wait! What? You know about the Great Spirits?" Judy asked with the surprised yet a bit confused tone...

...She had not thought about the Great Spirits for a few days since the morning she met her mother and found herself within the skin of the fox, due to her mind being in her goal of getting to the three-pointed Mountain to change back to bunny, somehow.

"Of course I do, Judy, because my grandma's up there, as well as my granddad from my mother's side." Nick said to Judy, before he turned away from the lights to Judy and settled down onto the tusk to explain to Judy that what did he knew about the spirits.

"My mother once taught me that the world is full of magic, and that all the magical changes that happens constantly all in the world are the works of the Spirits up there. For example, a small things becomes a big things. even colder winter turns to warm spring and one thing always changes into another, like the leaves change their color, or the moon changes its shape or tadpoles changes into frogs..." Nick explained...

...until Judy interrupted him, with a bit stern look in her faces as a bit her mind disturbing feelings filled her head.

"Yeah, I-I-I get it, Nick." Judy said.

Judy then turned her attention and her eyes up to the lights in the sky, in her faces the look that told that she still cared less about the magical changes and the Great Spirits, especially after what she experienced because of them... or so she at least believed.

"You know, for all of those magical changes, and the Great Spirits, maybe they could just leave some things to be alone." Judy said, as she turned around, turning her back to Nick's direction and leaned against the mammoth's right tusk.

Nick looked at Judy, not offended that Judy turned her back to him, but rather confused of Judy's words.

"What do you mean, Judy?" Nick asked, seeing all too well that something was bothering - or even haunting - her. Something which on the basis of her words concerned somehow to the Spirits.

However, Judy remained silent about that question, as she did not want to talk about. And Nick saw it all too well...

...But Nick wasn't about to give up so easily.

"If there is something wrong what's bothering you emotionally, you should tell me what it is. Speaking of your problems to someone close and having some comfort from him to your worries might help you to feel a bit better, even though it is never easy to reveal to someone else something that might emotionally hurt you." Nick said, gently offering the comfort for Judy's worries if she tells him that what's eating her.

Judy briefly lifted her head up and looked at Nick over her left shoulder.

Judy realized that Nick was more than just right about what he just said... revealing the most emotionally hurting things was never easy, and that because she did not know that what kind of reaction she would get from the fox, either compassionate, sarcastic or even taunting reaction, if she reveals her emotional problems to him... and it was the reason why she firmly hesitated of revealing them to Nick... due to him being the fox.

However, when Nick asked that from her and offered his sympathy and comfort for her problems, it was said with both gentle and compassionate tone and yet meaning it from the heart... no sign of sarcasm or taunting-like tone... and including his innocent-looking, friendly and positive nature and attitude, Judy began to convince herself that Nick was the person, to whom it was safe to reveal what was bothering her, without of fear of being taunted for it by the one, who happens to be the fox.

"You see, Nick... my father. My father is a one of the Spirits now. he died in front of my eyes a few days ago before we even met... and yet he was so dear to me." Judy started, with her eyes starting to fill with the tears as she remembered the past times she used to spent with her father, a long before that unfortunate day and the tragic events back in the cave and at the glacier.

"If my dad was still alive, of if it wasn't for him, I... I wouldn't be here right now." Judy added, as she leaned even harder against the mammoth's tusk.

Judy left intentionally the whole truth out from what did she just say, of being magically changed from the bunny into the gray-furred fox, because just as the moose when she met them for the first time and told that to them, both of them saw her just as a crazed mammal on that morning... and Judy believed Nick reacting to that one by the similar way as the moose did, no matter how nice and sympathetic fox kitten actually was.

Nick immediately took even more sympathetic expression on his faces after hearing Judy's confession (partially) of her problems.

"You have a father up there?" Nick silently but gently asked as he turned to the lights in the sky.

Nick then lowered his head and remained silent for a moment, considering carefully his next question in order not to accidentally hurt Judy emotionally by his words... before the fox kitten eventually turned back to Judy.

"What happened to him? How did he...?" Nick asked carefully, awaiting for either Judy's reaction or response.

 _How did he died?_ That question which Nick asked, though stopped before even finished it, caused Judy's faces to harden even more when the memories of the battles against the giant savage fox from the rocks over the glacier filled her mind.

"He was killed by..." Judy immediately halted her tongue as she was about to say the word "fox"

Mentally reminding herself about Nick's innocent-looking, friendly and gentle nature and attitude towards him, compared to the savagery and ruthlessness in that giant fox near of her people's borders. And just because of that, Judy did not dare to say it loud to Nick because she did not want to hurt Nick's feelings by revealing him the reason of her father's tragic death.

And these thoughts provoked Judy to ask her one question mentally within her head.

Does the foxes kill the other foxes in the wilderness?

And with that, her hardened faces softened, though she turned her faces away from Nick and she leaned her head against the tusk yet again.

"...By some monster." Judy finished.

This was enough for Nick to hear... now when he knew that Judy actually had a father, whom she had shortly lost before they met... presumably by some foxes hunting and eating predator, in basis of her words and probably as well her cold and harsh attitude from their first met.

Nick, in fact, did not even want to know the details of Judy's father's death... because he himself wasn't yet in his age fond of taking the life from another creatures, that were smaller than his own kind.

And with that, Nick slowly climbed onto Judy's back, witch caught Judy's attention and she turned her softened faces and her amethyst eyes filled by emotional sorrow towards Nick's full of sympathy from the heart filled faces and the emerald eyes.

And then, Nick leaned his head a bit closer of Judy's head to ask something more.

"So your father is the reason why you're heading to that three-pointed Mountain, in the hope of seeing him even for the last time before you can finally accept whatever happened to him?" Nick asked gently.

Judy considered her answer to that question for a moment... but at least she couldn't tell to Nick the whole truth that she was actually heading to the Mountain to change back to bunny.

"Yes, something like that." Judy finally answered with the gently tone, while keeping the majority of the whole truth within herself.

And with her answer, Judy earned from Nick a sympathetic and comforting smile... kind of what no one else have never ever before received from the fox.

And for that, Judy smiled warmly back at him... thanking the fox for his sympathy and comfort.

"I'm sorry for what happened to your father, Judy." Nick said once again with the sympathetic voice and feelings for Judy, earning from her the warm smile and a small nod as a thanks for the fox cub's sympathy for her.

"Then I think that in that case we have at least something common, because I know how you feel about it... even though not as much as what you do." Nick added, as the fox-kitten lowered his head and his eyes a bit down, along with lowering his fox-ears against the back of his head after saying this.

This completely surprised Judy.

 _He knows how do I feel of loosing my father?! Does that means...?!_ Surprised Judy though in her mind...

...as Nick's recent words reminded her that since the very first moment she and Nick met each other by a chance, Nick had constantly mentioned and talked about ONLY his mom, but he had never mentioned anything about of having a father.

"What are you talking about, Nick?" Judy asked with the surprised tone as she turned to Nick.

"I also once had father of my own." Nick answered, as he slowly turned his head away from Judy.

That word, "once," ringed in Judy's ears for a second, and told her that Nick had as well lost his own father... and probably just recently.

"What exactly happened to him? Was it something horrible like, your father faced some tragic incident in the claws and fangs of the monster of which you witnessed in front of your very own eyes just like I did with my father's incident? Or did he left you and your mother behind for some other vixen? Or did he...? Judy asked, though she didn't even consider at first of what she should had ask and what she shouldn't had ask. Though the latter question was unintentionally inspired by what Nick had just said, which also aroused in her mind all those factorials topics about the foxes notorious treacherous and back-stabbing nature and attitudes told her by her grandfather during of her childhood...

She instantly halted her tongue at the sight of Nick. The fox cub had fallen into complete silence and even curled himself up into the ball on the mammoth's tusk, with his head lowered down onto his knees and his tail wrapped around of his legs... and yet he had taken the expression on his faces, of which Judy had a difficult to see that was Nick upset for what she just said... but the one thing was sure that the fox kitten was presumably mourning his own father.

Fearing that she had just unintentionally offended Nick's feelings after the latter had just offered some sympathy for her own tragic loss, despite the fact that Nick was the fox, whose species was constantly in the target of distrust and prejudices from the other animals of the forest, as she was granted with the opportunity to witness it during of her first morning as a fox, Judy immediately opened her mouth in order to explain herself to Nick.

"N-no! Nick! Don't-don't get me wrong, Nick! I didn't want to be a rude and I didn't want to upset you by asking something like that, of which you don't want gladly to speak of. I-I maybe went too far gone by saying something like that with such of rude tone, and I..." Judy took the pause to look at Nick, who had not totally turned his back to her, but he still sat in silence, curled in ball on mammoth's tusk and with the mourning-looking expression on his faces.

While looking at the fox-kitten, Judy started for the first time feel the sorry for the very animal, whose species she had for a several days past hated and despised for her own personal reason... and let out the sight out of her mouth.

"Look, Nick. I'm sorry if I went too far gone and asked something what I shouldn't have ask with such of rude tone. And if you don't want to talk about it, fine, I get it. But you yourself said to me a moment ago that speaking to someone about your problems and have then some comfort from him/her to your worries might help you to feel a bit better, even though your problems might be so emotionally painful that you don't want to speak about it." Judy said, after reminding Nick about his own words he said to her a moment ago.

And after hearing his own words coming from Judy's words, and considering a bit of revealing his own father's fate to Judy, Nick soon lifted his head up and turned back to Judy... yet oddly with the quite cheery smile in his faces.

Judy was a quite confused to see such of cheerful smile to appear on Nick's faces so quickly - even though she could sense that there was still a touch of sorrow and emotional pain within this fox-kitten's heart.

"Nah! I wasn't totally upset for what you just said, Judy... though it was a quite rudely said from the mouth of the fox to another fox, I have to say." Nick said to Judy with the tone, which was the mixture of the sarcasm and scolding tones...

...which had a sizable effect to Judy, as the latter lowered by her turn her own head a bit down and lowered her ears against the back of her skull in a touch of shame for saying something so rude to the fox-kitten, who himself had not asked from her in an rude tone any emotionally hurtful questions about her father at all.

 _Then why did he smile like that? in fact, how you've been so cheerful all this time even though you know that your own father's gone? Whatever has happened to him and depending on when it happened._ Judy thought in her mind, as Nick's cheerful-like smile remained to bother her for a while, even though the latter know too well that he had somehow and at some point lost his own father...

...and yet his cheerful smile made Judy to wonder that did Nick's smile meant that it didn't bother him that he is currently without father...

...until Nick snapped her out of her thoughts by speaking something, which got instantly Judy's attention away from her own thoughts.

"But the truth of myself being a moment ago visibly upset is..." Nick started, as the fox-kitten turned his head away from Judy again and then lowered his head a bit down again, though the fox-kitten's recent cheerful smile was replaced by the expression that looked like "What's the matter?" or "Who cares?" expressions.

"...that I didn't even know my father. I did say, that I once had a father of my own, or at least I should have had a father of my own. And yet it's emotionally painful to me to watch that all other fox-kittens back in Foxtopia have the fathers of their own, who would spend their time from the morning to the night with their children by playing with them, teaching their kittens what they know about world and help them to survive in the world on their own... and to remind myself at the same time about the one disturbing fact that I'm the only one fox-kitten that was born as fatherless, which makes me to feel myself an outcast among of my own kind. That has been haunted me throughout my childhood." Nick explained with the deep and low voice, though he still kept his careless-looking expression on his faces.

"Born as fatherless? Does that means that you've been fatherless since...?" Judy asked, until she halted her tongue to allow Nick to continue/explain more.

"...Prior my own birth, yes. That's why you were at least luckier than me, that you at least even had a father of your own." Nick finished for Judy.

Judy was also bothered by two opinions of this, inspired by everything Nick had said so far and everything her grandfather had told her about the foxes...

...that Nick's father has either left his mother for some other vixen or got somehow killed before Nick was even born...

...and only one of these opinions was correct. But which one?

And urged to find it out, as she had already revealed to Nick about her own father's death, albeit partially and editing the truth about her own view to not offend Nick's feelings, Judy couldn't hold herself back from asking this from Nick.

"Do you have any idea that what happened to your father?" Judy asked, much more gentler and with sympathetic tone this time.

Nick then opened right after his mouth to say something.

"That's very hard to explain, Judy. I don't even know much about that, because my mother hasn't often spoken about my dad... even to me." Nick said.

"Once when I tried to ask my mom to tell me about my father, which was inspired by my view of all other fox-kittens back in Foxtopia having fun with the fathers of their very own and me as a fatherless, I didn't realize that how big influence it had to my mother. She instantly went in an visibly upset state for the several days." Nick explained.

"Try me, Nick. You have to know even something about it. Tell me all you know." Judy sympathetically encouraged.

Nick lifted his head up to look at Judy's encouraging look in her faces for a moment, before the fox-kitten let out the sigh of defeat, before he then nodded.

"Well, at least I know that my mother was in the presence when the incident happened..."

"But I managed to get some information of it. That night, after the bedtime, I sneaked to eavesdrop my mother and my uncle when they were both still awake late to the night, while discussing about my father. My mother, who was still visibly upset from my earlier question on that day, revealed to my uncle that she hadn't yet told me about my father yet because she hadn't yet felt herself ready to let go the unfortunate encounter with a Eagle Owl in the past..." Nick explained.

"Whoa! Whoa! Wait for minute... EAGLE OWL?!" Judy loudly exclaimed, as her fox-ears, along with her head, quickly jumped upwards out of surprise after hearing the mention of the notorious bird of prey by its species name...

...and no wonder, because the certain bird of prey happens to be one of the foxes natural and mortal enemies.

"Does that then mean that your father is actually...?" Judy asked with the low voice, until she quickly halted back her tongue from saying that very word, in order not to hurt Nick's feelings again and to allow Nick to continue explaining...

...though she believed that she already knew the answer since Nick mentioned about his father for the first time, though she needed just confirmation to it.

"Well, I don't know that, Judy, because even though my mother was in the presence and witnessed most of what happened on that day, she said to my uncle that she didn't see the worst happen with her very own eyes." Nick explain.

"Try me, Nick. Keep going." Judy gently encouraged Nick to continue with the sympathizing feelings towards Nick.

Nick nodded and cleared at first his throat before he continued.

"Well, I remember my mother saying to my uncle that when she and my father, as they were expecting me and very close of becoming the parents, they were looking for the safe place for the childbirth until they encountered the hungry Eagle Owl, bigger than what they had saw ever in their life as my mother described it to my uncle. The monstrous bird of prey had pursued my parents through the forest from the air, until it got my parents cornered into the gaps between of rocks that had slid down from the higher ridges above. From there, my parents were forced to seek the refuge from the eagle owl in hope that it would give up and leave them alone. However, the monster refused to give up from the easy meat, meaning my pregnant mother and back then unborn me, and instead remained nearby in the top of the trees waiting for, when the hunger would get best of my parents and would drive them to the suicidal attempt to get away from the area. My mother, with her eyes filled with a bitter tears and her tone of voice filled with a heartbreaking sorrow, said that every time she sleeps, she sees in her eyes my soon-to-be father's faces, ordering my mother to escape to the different direction while he himself distracts bird of prey. My mother said yet that her last view of my father was that he rushed out of the gaps between of the rocks and disappeared into the woods, without listening my mother's protest and begs for him to stay with her, with us, with me, and the monstrous bird of prey flying right into his direction before it disappeared among of the trees...

...and afterwards, my father never came back... and that there was nothing left of him to be find." Nick finished, with the low and a bit sorrow-filled tone.

Judy grew even more sympathetic towards Nick after he had finished... and she was totally stunned after leaning that Nick's father had presumably died in the claws of the gigantic bird of prey to ensure Nick's mother's survival and giving with his life to his son's chance to live.

Such of selflessness and heroism coming from the fox was unprecedented.

"And all of this happened prior your birth? Then no wonder if you ended up to born as fatherless." Judy said...

...to which Nick nodded slightly.

It was then when Judy couldn't anymore hold back the question bothering her.

"But explain me yet one thing, if you please. If you knew this all a long, depending on when you exactly heard about it, and if the knowledge of being fatherless since prior of your birth haunts you so much, then why did you smiled so cheerfully a moment ago?" Judy asked, still a bit confused of Nick's a quite cheerful attitude, even after telling about his father's tragic incident.

"You sounded and acted like your father's tragic incident never even happened or that knowing of being only fatherless among of the other fox-kittens didn't even bother you emotionally. What was all of that about?" Judy added.

After that, Nick leaned backwards and lied down on his back to the upwards curving part of the mammoth's tusk, before he started to explain.

"Maybe from outside of me... but partially not from inside." Nick started.

"Maybe from outside but partially not from inside of you?" What gives?" Judy asked, a bit more confused.

"You see Judy, Even though being fatherless and viewing other fox-kittens having a fathers of their own still hurts me from inside, I'm doing my best to follow my part of the code "Never let them see that they get to you, no matter what they say or see about you"... because there's never even a single non-foxes that could ever feel sympathy for the foxes for the losses of their loved ones, but they would be only mercilessly and remorselessly taunting us for it instead. And I'm telling ya, in case if your own parents have never told you this, that even if we foxes do not appear to be so, we foxes can be emotionally highly sensitive creatures on Earth... that's why we foxes follow our code "Never let them see that they get to you" to hide our true personalities from all animals, except from our own kind and from those ones who actually trusts to the foxes." Nick explained."

Judy was highly stunned after Nick revealed that the foxes outer-selves, as well as their cunning attitudes and sneaky personalities were actually the shields against the other animals insults and prejudices against their kind.

"Following that code also helped me to get over of my father's apparent death. You see, Judy, once I heard about the truth of my father, I was as heartbroken as my mother was and it just worsened my feelings... but after I heard my mother revealing to my uncle my father's emotional tears triggering last words before sacrificing his life "Once you look at our child face-to-face after he's born, dear, think all the best things of life with which you can create the bright and better future for our child. I may help you, as well as him or her, to get over this tragic one day." Nick explained.

"So, I attempted to try it myself by thinking the upcoming bright sides of my future and making a friends from other fox-kittens and their fathers and even some non-foxes and playing with them every day, until one day I truly felt it's affect. Our code oddly helped me to suppress most of the emotional pain of the past tragedies and even helped me to accept the fact of being fatherless since I was born. And probably seeing me happy and with a lot of friends helped my mother as well to get over of the past tragedies, though temporarily." Nick finished...

...causing the smile to appear in Judy's faces.

Judy wanted to ask one more thing from Nick, though she expected that Nick had no answers to that question due to her mother, whom hadn't under of her sorrow over of Nick's father's death spoken anything about him.

"Did your mother even described your father? I mean that... what kind of fox he was?" Judy asked, which was inspired by the way that how Nick had explained the foxes code "Never let them see that they get to you, no matter what they say or see about you" and being told about the inner good within the foxes much-said outer shield of cunning, selfish and dishonest attitudes.

"Well, not quite much in face-to-face contact with me. Because since my question, I unintentionally ruined my mother's current happiness by reminding her about my father and his tragic disappearing during of encounter with the Eagle Owl, and I felt bad about it for a long time." Nick said with the tone of guilt in his voice as he remembered those times.

"But by eavesdropping at night when my mother, in the company of my uncle, openly expressed that she missed my dad so much and listed all things she missed about him. Through of them I got to know that my father was the most handsome, boldest and most kind-hearted of all the foxes she had ever met... and that my mother felt that every vixen in Foxtopia would be green by jealous for her having such of fox as her mate." Nick said, listing the things of his father he had secretly heard from his mother.

"Including selfless..." Judy reminded him, catching the fox-kitten's attention to her.

"He was such of selfless person by giving his own life to such of horrible fate to ensure your own survival and chance to live through of ensuring your mother's survival." Judy said gently, though she was secretly stunned of that saying such of words about "Selfless fox."

"Yeah... and even though I never got the chance to meet and know my father better than this, and even though viewing other fox-kittens with their fathers of their own and me without a one still makes me feel the emotional pain and sorrow itching within my heart, I'm every day and night deeply grateful from deep of my heart to him for the happiness, which he gave to me and my mother by giving his own life for us, and I hope that he has earned his place among of the Spirits for what he did for me and my mother. And because of that, I've sometimes been considering about paying the visit on the top of that Three-Pointed Mountain by myself to look for my father among of them to meet him and thank him personally, But the Mountain happens to be far outside of Foxtopia's borders and my mother has sternly forbidden me to go outside of Foxtopia's borders... unless she's with me." Nick added.

Judy nodded to the fox-kitten out of understanding, because that what Nick just said reminded her about many of those times when her own bunny parents, both her father and mother, have constantly forbidden her younger self from going to the dangerous places or doing something too foolhardy...

...such like high trees, steep, high and vertical cliffs, rapids, surroundings of the high waterfalls and the glaciers due to the risk of falling down from the trees, cliffs , waterfalls and into the large holes and gaps in the glaciers...

...from swimming deeper in middle of the lakes, in the risks of getting eaten by the giant pike fishes or by giant sturgeons...

...and from going alone and at the night time to the forest and to the open fields outside of their village's borders, due to from the air rabbits-hunting birds of prey and from the ground rabbits-hunting beasts of prey on the ground.

Well, that's what the parents are for, protecting us from the harm. Judy thought in her mind.

"Well, at least I still have my mother here to watch after me for him. I just hope that my mother has realized that I'm heading with you back to Foxtopia and that she is heading to there as well, looking for me." Nick said, as she climbed back onto Judy's back from the mammoth's tusk to look up at the lights in the sky.

Judy, however, remained for a moment silent, thinking of everything what she had heard from Nick's mouth.

Nick having been living as fatherless among of the other foxes even prior his birth...

...his father's sacrifice in the claws of the eagle owl for his mother's survival and for Nick's future...

...the foxes code "Never let them see that they get to you, no matter what they say or see about you" which she had found to be the reason for the rumors about the foxes being the worst kind of animals on the planet, and so on...

...but it also included the fact that they did not differ much from each other, not because that they're both the foxes - or at least Nick was while Judy was the bunny in the fox's skin - but by the fact that both of them had lost their fathers and that they were both currently fatherless.

And then, Judy turned back to Nick.

"Well, I'm glad that you told me all of that, Nicky... and I'm sorry for your loss as well." Judy said with the gentle and sympathetic voice, causing the fox-kitten to turn his grateful expression on his face at her.

"My thanks for your sympathy, Judy." Nick thanked.

"And you know what? If your dad should have lived longer, than what cruel life allowed him to live, to see your born, to see you growing up and to spend time with you, I'm sure that your father would have been the very good father to you..." Judy said.

Until her own expression turned into the sad expression as she was about to finish what she had to say to Nick.

"...just as my own dad was a very good father to me, until the cruel life took him away from me." Judy said, as she leaned her head back against the mammoth's tusk.

After hearing this, it was Nick's turn to take the sympathy for Judy filled look on his faces.

Because, as Judy had told him, her own father had died just recently and that Judy was still mentally dealing with her own grief and inner pain that the loss of her father had filled her, which was not the easy task at all.

Nick knew how she felt, after having himself gone long ago through the same process before partially accepting the fact of being fatherless, though the only differences between of their fathers incidents was that Judy had to witness it, while Nick's own father died prior of his own birth.

And with that, Nick turned from the lights to Judy and, with his eyes re-filled with sympathy towards Judy, Nick targeted his eyes at Judy's amethyst eyes re-filled by sorrow, witch caught Judy's attention and she turned back to Nick, looking at the fox-kitten's emerald eyes.

"One thing yet about your father, Judy... what was your father's name?" Nick asked gently.

This time, Judy didn't hesitate of revealing her father's name to Nick.

"Stu... my father's name is Stu." Judy answered gently.

And with that, Nick turned his attention to the lights in the sky.

"Hey, Stu. If you hear me up there, I just wants to say... thanks. If it weren't for you, I would have never met my a new best friend and your daughter, Judy." Nick said towards the lights in the sky.

"I wish that you and Judy has a warm and heartfelt reunion with you once she gets to the Mountain to see you once again so that she will have the inner peace.

"And don't worry. Until then, I'll take care of your daughter." Nick added to the light in the sky, until the light briefly glowed even brighter like it acknowledged this.

However, unknowingly to Nick, he happened to surprise Judy by saying that "If it weren't for you, I would have never met my a new best friend and your daughter, Judy" with the tone that sounded as if they had been destined to meet each other or something like that.

 _But that's stupid and can't be even possible... we met each other just by chance._ Judy thought in her mind.

But, however, it reminded Judy about the events back in her tribe's lair, when to her was granted her totem "Fox of Friendship" by the Spirits through of her mother, and which she had with anger, contempt and determination rejected after her father's tragic death "by the claws of fox" and before all of this happened.

The words, which her father's spirit form had told her before he had magically transformed her into the fox on the top of that mountain, echoed in her head like the powerful sound of the thunder.

 _EVERYTHING YOU NEED IS TO SEE THE THINGS DIFFERENTLY AND HOW THEY ARE... IN ANOTHER ONE'S EYES, JUDITH. AND THE TRUE REASON WHY I'M DOING THIS, YOU'LL FIND IT OUT BY YOURSELF... IN TIME._

Judy also remembered what her mother said to her after she had found her unconscious riverbank and trapped in her gray-furred fox-form.

 _I sense that your father must have something really big planned for you Judy._

And yet that one which Nick said to her father's spirit among of the other Spirits traveling across the sky in the line of Light.

What everything of those words have to do with this? Judy thought in her mind.

Judy was then snapped out of her thoughts, as Nick landed off her back onto the lead mammoth's coiled trunk and leaned close of her left side, snuggling his own head and his right side passionately against Judy's fur for warmth and comfort.

"I love to have such of wonderful friends like you, Judy." Nick said as he kept snuggling his head against Judy's fur.

And after that, Nick rolled up into the ball against Judy's left hip and quickly fell asleep, probably having been speaking for an hours, nearly whole day, had gotten into Nick's strength and as an result the fox-kitten had fallen asleep faster than even two hundred and seventy-five energetic bunny-kittens.

Judy kept her eyes locked at Nick's against her side peacefully sleeping form for a some time...

...until she couldn't anymore resist of the fox cub's adorable sleeping form and the motherly-like smile appeared onto her faces, and she proceed to stretch her left paw towards Nick and landed it onto Nick's head, running her paw slowly and gently over Nick's head from the forehead to behind of Nick's head, pulling his fox-ears backwards every time, to ensure Nick having a comfortable feelings while sleeping.

"Good night, Nicky." Judy whispered...

...as she proceed by wrapping her fluffy tail around of Nick's sleeping form to give him even more comfort, warmth and the protection.

And after that, Judy returned back into her thoughts.

After what Nick had said to her father's spirit among the lights, Judy had started to feel herself since her transformation on the peak as if she has been until now a pawn in the some kind of game or something like that.

As she still kept her surprised, confused and wondering expression on her face, Judy turned to look at the lights in the night sky.

"Father? If you can hear me... if all of that what my mother said to me back in the river bank is true... was my transformation out of something else than just a punishment? Did I and Nick met each other by chance or did you planned all of this? Or why did you even send me to this adventure with Nick? Can you please answer me, father?" Judy whispered into the skies.

However, the light in the sky didn't respond to her questions by the simiiar way as they did with Nick...

...which either told to Judy, or made her to believe, that the Spirits viewed her transformation as a pointless and sinless (in her view) punishment for her, thus rejecting her, and forbidding her father to answer back to her.

But despite that, Judy kept looking at the _Lights_ in the night sky, in hope to see even one sign of the acknowledge from the Spirit of her father...

...as the herd of mammoths continued peacefully their walk towards their common heading.

But little she knew, that in the top of one of the trees, that the mammoth herd were just passing, was sitting the very same bald eagle, which Judy had seen back in the riverbank back on that morning when she was awakened as a fox.

The bald eagle stared from all the mammoths only the lead mammoth... and especially the foxes lying on their mammoth's coiled trunk and tusks.

"As I told you, dear Judith... you'll find it out by yourself... in time." The eagle said with Stu's voice, before it took off from the top of the tree and flew into the night sky, but turned its course to the same direction to where the mammoth herd was heading for.

 **TO BE CONTINUE...**

 **I hope that you guys liked reading this chapter.  
**


	18. Chapter 18: Arguments

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 18. ARGUMENTS  
**

 **ENJOY THE READING.**

At the next dawn.

The night went quite calmly and without any problems.

And the herd of mammoths continued on their way through the open area towards their own heading far in the horizon.

And before long, the morning began to shine, coloring the slightly cloudy sky into the morning's orange.

While Judy's and Nick's mammoth kept going in the head of the herd, the moose brothers own mammoth kept following with the rest of the herd, carrying the moose in its back without paying any attention on them.

Both the moose brothers were hanging in the mammoth's back like "hunted meat". And they had hanged in the very same position a quite long that the brothers were starting to get bored and wished something to pass time.

"Hey, you want to play "I Spy" to pass some time, bro?" Bucky asked from his brother, after having enough of boredom.

"Hmmmm... alright." Pronk agreed, after considering Bucky's game suggestion for a while.

"And if you don't mind, I'll go first, okay?" Bucky suggested again.

"Okay. Go ahead." Pronk said, giving to his brother a agreeing nod and allowing his brother to start at first.

Bucky then started to look for something to spy and then allow his brother to guess that what it was.

"Okay, here goes first. I spy... something... green. What is it?" Bucky eventually said, allowing his brother to guess that what he was spying from the horizon.

Pronk started immediately to observe the area while searching with his eyes for something "green".

The area in front of them was a quite wide and open, and that there was hardly any reference to the green, except...

"Tree?" Pronk guessed after eight seconds from Bucky's question, as he spotted the short and lone tree in the horizon, which their mammoth was slowly but certainly about to pass.

"Oh! How did you guess that so easily?" Bucky asked from his brother after letting out the snort of defeat.

However, Bucky quickly realized that he had asked a very dump question, as the green tree was nearly all what was seen in the whole wide open area.

"You know what? Never mind. That was actually a quite dumb question, as there's no other trees around in the area, save for that one in the middle of nowhere." Bucky eventually said, referring with the nod at the lone tree as it was left behind.

"Is it my turn now?" Pronk then asked with the winner's smug grin, earning the positive nod from his brother... along with the sore loser's expression on his face.

Pronk then lifted his head up and made a quick look all around to the open area before his question.

"Okay, here goes mine. I spy something... something... tall. Very tall. What is it?" Pronk said, after which Bucky started immediately search with his eyes for something referring to be "tall" from the open area.

"Tree?" Bucky guessed, two seconds after Pronk's question, when he noticed a new lonely, but this time "tall" tree standing in middle of the open area, but this time, it was standing slightly closer to them and the passing mammoth.

"Yes. It's tree." Pronk simply said with the congratulating voice.

Unlike Bucky, Pronk didn't snort out of defeat for Bucky's correctly guessed answer to his question, neither he asked his brother's own question "how did you guess it so easily?" 'Cause he already found it a pretty dumb-sounding question. At least Pronk wasn't as sore loser like his brother apparently was.

And after that, it was Bucky's turn to spy something for his brother to guess.

"Okay... uhh... I spy... I spy... something, something... something that has..." Bucky said, struggling with both of his words and the ideas, as the best options started to run out... and no wonder, especially when they were still in the wide opening.

"...something that has... bark. What is it?" Bucky finally finished his question, as he eyed the next very close to them standing lone tree, which was partially peeled off from the bark. Probably because of some other hungry elks.

"Tree?" Pronk guessed again, spotting the same tree and guessing the answer quicker than the last time, causing Bucky to let out another sore loser's snort of defeat out of his mouth.

It was then once again Pronk's turn to spy something.

"Okay, I spy something, uh..." Pronk started, as he lifted his head a bit higher to get a better look over the area and pick up something to spy, until he was interrupted as he saw from the left corner of his eyes Bucky trying to cheat by moving his head closer to his to see that what Pronk was about to spy...

...provoking Pronk to hit with his left arm's elbow against his brother's right side.

"UGH!" Bucky gasped in the slight pain after feeling Pronk's left elbow hitting him hard against his right side.

"Hey! Don't try to cheat! Besides, you may cause our antlers to mess up with each other again!" Pronk said, berating his brother for cheating and nearly messing their antlers together again.

Bucky took the poorly innocent-looking moose-grin on his faces after Pronk had finished.

"Sorry, go on." Bucky encouraged.

Pronk let out the sigh a bit annoyed to his brother's apparent immaturity before he continued.

"Okay, I spy something... uh... a narrow and vertical log. What it is?" Pronk asked.

This time Bucky didn't even paid any attention to the area to see that what Pronk was spying... like he already guessed that what Pronk was spying.

"Tree? Isn't it?" He guessed.

Pronk gave to his brother the humbly nod.

"Yap. Your turn brother." He said quickly.

"Okay, here goes. I spy..." Bucky was about to start, until he was quickly interrupted by Pronk who already answered before Bucky could even finish.

"Tree? It is tree, right?" Pron guessed.

"UGH, DANG! NOT AGAIN!" Bucky complained loudly out of pure frustration, allowing his brother to smugly giggle silently at his brother's frustration.

"Okay, My turn then." Pronk said, until...

"Tree?" Bucky guessed, already before Pronk was able to spy something.

A bit surprised of this, Pronk turned at his brother.

"What?! Hey, I didn't even..." Pronk attempted to protest.

"It counts, brother." Bucky smugly declared.

"But I didn't even spied anything yet and..." Pronk protested but was cut off by Bucky who remained true to his beliefs.

"IT COUNTS! Do not argue, brother." Bucky declared with the firm and strong-minded tone, annoying Pronk enough to provoke the golden-brown moose to protest even harder against his brother's claim, which he saw as an unfair move.

"Nuh-uh! No way that doesn't! That wasn't even a fair move from you. Besides..." Pronk protested with the annoyed tone, but was cut short off by his brother.

"Well, you should have thought that earlier before YOU unfairly took the false start by guessing the answer BEFORE I MYSELF managed to even spy anything from the area, bro. We're now even, so do not argue and accept the fair defeat." Bucky said firmly.

After hearing his brother claiming him "taking the false start" struck to his brother like the offensive insult...

"Did you... did you just called me a cheater, bro?!" Offended moose asked from his red-brown furred brother with the raised and deeply offended tone of voice.

"Yes, I did." Bucky said with the smug look in his faces...

...much to his brother's even greater annoyance.

"Hey, just for you to know, bro. Everything you've spied so far has that one same answer, as there's nothing else on this open area to spy. I just..." Pronk attempted to explain himself to his stubborn brother, only to be once again interrupted by his brother by saying...

"...decided to cheat before I had even spied anything yet." Bucky said, labeling his his brother's "back-stabbing" guess as a cheating.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no and for the final time, NO! I just made it a bit shorter, and to skip that slowly boring and already many times over and with childish ease guessed answer. Besides, I got a new and better one for me to spy and for you to guess. So here goes!" Pronk said and attempted to say "I spy something..." so that his brother could guess what he was actually spying and answer.

However...

"Hey, hey! Don't you even try, bro! I already guessed what you were spying and I guessed it correctly, meaning that your turn was already over five-six minutes ago, so don't try to steal my own turn!" Bucky firmly and a bit stubbornly stated to his brother.

"WHAT?!" Pronk exclaimed out of both surprise and annoyance of his brother's stubbornness.

"Oh no, you didn't! Besides, I wasn't the tree what I was spying..." Pronk attempted to protest against his brother's unfair claim.

"What did I told you about arguing, bro?" Bucky, growing annoyed at his brother's protests, said to his brother.

"But... but... but... your answer wasn't even..." Pronk attempted, hoping that his brother would even reconsider of this, but in vain as Bucky once again cut his brother off from his words.

"For the one last time, bro. The answer was "tree", and it COUNTS! Now shut your trap and let me to spy something..." Bucky said firmly.

"NO! YOU SHUT YOUR TRAP AND LET ME TO REPEAT MY TURN!" Pronk, starting to lose his self-control and raising his voice to the high leveled annoyance, barked at his brother.

"NO! YOU SHUT YOUR TRAP!" Bucy raising his own voice to the level of frustration barked back to his brother.

"NO! YOU SHUT UP!" Pronk barked back.

"NO! YOU SHUT UP!" Bucky barked back.

The moose brothers then started to angrily bark the same line at each others.

"SHUT UP!"

"SHUT UP!"

"SHUT UP!"

"SHUT UP!"

"SHUT UP!"

"SHUT UP!"

"SHUT UP!"

"SHUT UP!"

"SHUT UP!"

"SHUT UP!"

However, a much louder and even more frustrated voice cut both of them off from their words.

"NOW YOU BOTH SHUT YOUR TRAPS AND KNOCK IT OFF FROM YELLING AT MY RIGHT EAR, OR ELSE I'LL DRAG BOTH OF YOU OFF FROM MY BACK WITH MY TRUNK AND TOSS YOU ASIDE! YOU'RE ALREADY TESTING MY OWN NERVES!" The moose brother's mammoth shouted over of his right shoulder at the moose brothers with the impatient and frustrated tone.

The mammoth's ten times more louder and angrier voice was enough to calm the moose down...

...though the brothers still remained bitter at each others, due to they beliefs of one another trying to cheat in "I spy" game.

"This game is not nice to play if you cheat all time." Pronk scolded his brother, though this time with the lowered tone of voice in order to not raise the mammoth's anger and frustration over of their argue again.

"Then let's not play it, you sore loser!" Bucky said back to his brother with slight insult in his voice, before turning his head away.

"Fine to me, you scrawny stubborn bison." Pronk said while returning to his brother's insult with insult, tired to argue with his brother any longer, said and turned his back to his brother.

The sulking brothers sat there in silence for a while until...

"By the way... I spy something round, gray, lifeless and heavy, which the mammoth just passed in the beginning of the argument. What is it?" Pronk, though reluctantly, asked from his brother, without turning at him or looking at him over of his shoulder.

"Tree?" Bucky guessed with the uninterested tone and look in his faces.

Pronk let out the negative-sounding snort at his brother's answer.

"Incorrect answer, you blockhead. The correct answer is the boulder of rock. Trees are vertical, narrow, tall, green and slightly light, while boulders are round, gray, lifeless and extremely heavy. Can't you tell the tree from the boulder?" Pronk asked with the scolding tone from his brother.

After hearing this, Bucky rolled his eyes out of frustration, before he hung his head down and let out the frustrated sigh out of defeat.

"Why did I even suggest this stupid game in the first place?" Bucky asked from himself as he frowned.

 **Meanwhile...**

...at the head mammoth of the mammoth herd.

Judy was still sleeping gently on the mammoth's coiled trunk, and while sleeping, she had leaned her head against the mammoth's tusk. The mammoth's tusk, that was the sole hard bone, was not the best pillow she ever had in her whole life, there was not anything else to use as a pillow.

In fact, and in the slight fear to have annoying neck aches, Judy would have give anything for from the sheep's wool made comfortably soft pillow like the one she had among of her Bunnyburrow tribe, back at the time when she was still bunny.

And though the night was not even cold, Judy would have loved to have a blanket in addition to the sheep's wool-made pillow to comfort. The best both warmth and comfort bringing blanket is always made from the bear's or woolly mammoth's skin and thick fur, because they had always kept her wonderfully warm and comfort through of the cold winter nights.

However, knowing that the mammoths would never be happy to hear that she had used the mammoths' skinned wool as a blanket to warm and comfort herself through of the cold winter nights - and not the mention about the mammoths' possibly with the other animals shared negative view of the foxes as well, despite that they had allowed her and her traveling companions to ride on their backs for some miles, which served as another reason why it would not be wise for Judy to say something like that, especially in this fox-form - Judy had decided to forget the whole blanket-thing and settle for sleep without a soft pillow and a warm and comfortable blanket for this night.

However, despite being without a soft pillow and a warm and comfortable blanket, Judy continued her good sleep partially on both the mammoth's trunk and tusk, as long as the sun had not yet risen from the horizon to the sky.

However...

Judy was then "rudely" waked up from her slumber by Nick.

The fox-kitten had somehow managed to move during of his slumber from next to Judy onto her head, provoking Judy to wonder that was Nick the somnambulist (better known as sleepwalker) or something.

And while still sleeping, the fox-kitten was slipping from her head to her face and onto her long fox-snout slightly pressing her head against the mammoth's trunk and provoking her to wake up.

Though a bit annoyed of getting woken up like this, Judy decided not to snap at Nick this time.

"Nick?" Judy called Nick's name instead of snapping at him, while moaning and groaning sleepily.

She did not received the answer from the fox-kitten, only couple of snoring sounds.

"Ugh!" Judy snorted, before she slowly lifted her head up and Nick along with it.

"Nick, come on?" Judy called Nick's name yet again...

...and still not answer from the fox-kitten.

Nick just mumbled loudly sleepily between of the snoring sounds, as the fox-kitten attempted even in slumber to climb back in Judy's head, like the fox-kitten had found the comforting spot to sleep, and not wanting to give up from it yet by waking up.

"Oh! Come on, Nick! Wake up." Judy said, now fully awake and encouraging Nick to wake up.

" _Wakety, wakety, wakety, wa'aaaake! Wake up, you little Sleepy-head._ " Judy encouraged with a bit teasing yet humorous tone of voice, but she couldn't help but to giggle to it by herself, as she remembered that her father had used to say those words to her when he had came to wake her up from the slumber every morning when she was still a little bunny-kitten.

"Please, be merciful. Not yet the spring-time. Two more months, mom." Nick mumbled in the slumber, as the fox-kitten eventually slid off from Judy's faces and gently landed in Judy's waiting arms beneath, before Judy dropped him gently onto the mammoth's tusk.

"In case you've noticed, Nick, we're foxes... not bears." Judy humorously said, as she took the notice at Nick's sleepy speech, like the sleepy fox-cub was thinking that he was a grizzly bear still hibernating.

A slightly groaning sleepily, Nick eventually rose up to sit on the mammoth's tusk, rubbing his head and stomach with his paws.

Apparently, like usually with every creature after waking up from the good deep slumber, Nick had his head still a bit groggy, judged from his rolling eyes that barely stayed open

"So, little slick, where are we?" Judy then asked looking all around of them.

After rubbing his eyes with his wrists for a while to get his vision more clear Nick paid the look at the surroundings.

The surrounding terrain in the feet of the steep red cliffs (and mountains) with of frozen rivers and waterfalls, against of which the dawn's sunlight was shining, was full of the high hills and ridges and unlike back in the open field far behind of them, there was growing even more trees all around of them.

However Nick found himself dumbfounded and confused, because the terrain seemed to be so, so strange to him.

Judy saw Nick looking a quite confused as he looked at the area nervously.

"Well? Which way?" Judy asked.

This was the very question Nick found difficult to answer.

"Well... uhhh... I think it's that way, through of the wooden area." Nick answered, with some hesitation and confusion, as he pointed with his paw to the area in the left side of the mammoth herd's path, where the trees were growing more densely than everywhere else on this terrain.

Nick's answer also confused Judy a bit as well.

"Through of the wooden area? You think, or you know?" Judy questioned with the skeptical look in her faces.

Nick then turned his attention to the right.

"Or then... uhhh... that way? Over of that high ridge out there?" Nick said, pointing with his paw at the ridge in the right side of the mammoth's path.

Nick's confusing answers to her question, as well as the fox-kitten's lack of knowledge about the direction to his so called Foxtopia and the Three-Pointed-Mountain, were starting to slowly frustrating Judy.

"Just tell me honestly, Nick. You don't actually even know that where we are, don't you?" Judy asked.

"Well, this area just looks so strange to me. I don't even remember to be here before. I think that we might be..." Nick answered.

"...lost. We are lost, aren't we?" Judy asked, sounding now even more annoyed and frustrated than a moment ago, lie she had already guessed the answer before Nick could even finish his speech.

Nick sensed this, and a bit nervous fox-kitten hesitated to answer.

"Well... uh... yeah. I think so." Nick eventually answered.

Judy rolled her eyes and let out the groan out of annoyance and frustration after the answer and their current situation was revealed.

"Oh sweet cheese and crackers! Why wasn't I turned into a homing pigeon instead of fox?" Judy whispered to himself, once again complaining his current state as a fox, though not silent enough for Nick not to hear.

"You mean, "Why you weren't born as a pigeon", don't you?" Nick corrected a bit mischievously, even though the fox-kitten had no idea that what Judy was even talking about of being "turned into".

Judy frowned annoyed at this... she definitely was in the mood of the jokes right now.

"Never mind." Judy snorted with the frustrated tone...

...before she suddenly jumped off from the mammoth's coiled trunk, landing on her feet to the ground and started to walk away from the herd.

Judy's sudden move greatly surprised, and a bit confused Nick.

"Hey! Where you think you're going?!" Nick called with the surprised tone after away from the herd departing Judy.

Though a bit reluctantly, Judy halted and turned around to Nick, as the fox-kitten was still sitting on the lead mammoth's right tusk, looking at her, as the mammoths were slowly departing to continue their own path forward to wherever they were heading.

"We don't need anymore the mammoth ride, Nick. I think that we're far enough from that hunter's reach so that we can continue on foot from now on, even though we're badly lost from our trail, thanks to you and your _so-called tracking abilities_." Judy said with a bit mocking tone, before she turned around and kept going towards the wooden area not bothering to wait Nick.

Nick frowned a bit at Judy's last words, though the fox-kitten immediately casted off those feelings off from his mind and jumped from the mammoth's tusk to its still coiled trunk to drop off himself.

But before Nick did so, he turned for the last time to the lead mammoth.

"Thanks for the ride, miss. See ya." Nick thanked, before he jumped off from the mammoth's trunk and rushed after Judy.

Nick managed to catch up Judy, after the rabbit physically stuck in the gray vixen's skin had managed to reach to the wood area of this terrain.

Though Nick didn't saw it first, Judy was now extremely frustrated by the fact that they had lost the path, as she was now waling straight forward through of the wood area in the deep silence and frowned look in her faces, completely ignoring even Nick's presence.

"I don't mind if we're lost. In fact, I love sometimes to be lost, because it gives the chance to explore the area even more and learn to now it. Besides, you're much more lucky, 'cause I've been lost worse than this." Nick said with the cheerful tone to Judy...

...even though Judy cared nothing about it at the moment. At the moment moody vixen only continued ignoring Nick's whole presence and his speeches, and she occasionally either shook her head or rolled her eyes out of slowly but certainly growing annoyance to Nick's positive and even cheerful tone, despite of their current status of being lost from the trail, and even ignoring the fact that Judy was not in the mood to listen.

"For example, in the last summer, I was with my friend Todd..." Nick said, attempting to tell Judy another backstory of his life.

It was then when Judy's tolerance reached to its end, provoking already moody vixen to turn around to Nick and snap loudly and angrily at the fox-kitten, cutting him off from his words.

"UGH! ENOUGH WITH THE STUPID STORIES! I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE TIME YOU AND SOMEONE SUPER-IDIOT GROUND SLOTH CALLED SID FOUND THREE THE WORLD'S BIGGEST PINE CONES EVER, WHICH YOU THEN TRIED TO FEED TO THE ANGRY RHINOS AS COMPENSATION FOR THEIR SALAD YOU RUINED WITH YOUR DIRTY FEET! JUST SHUT YOUR TRAP AND LEAVE ME ALONE!" Judy angrily - and even with a bit mocking tone - snapped at Nick, before she turned around and kept moving.

Even though Nick was a bit surprised/startled of Judy's sudden, unexpected and angry outburst, the fox-kitten, now really offended of Judy's angry words, quickly recovered from it and started to argue back, while he kept following Judy right behind of her tail.

"First of all, my friend was a red fox like me, not the ground sloth! Secondly, his name was Todd, not Sid! Thirdly, the rhinos are not related in any way to this and my friend is far from being "supper-idiot"! And finally, they weren't a pine cones, they were an eggs, AND THEY WERE HUGE ONES! EVEN BIGGER THAN THAT FAT HEAD OF YOURS!" Nick argued with the raised voice.

 _Fat head?!_ That kind of insult was the one Jill used to call her almost every single moment before this entire mess.

Even though Judy was able to somehow, though barely, keep her temper under control when that kind of insult coming from her big sister, hearing the same insult coming from the mouth of the fox was too much for her, especially in her moody status.

"HEY! DON'T YOU EVEN DARE TO CALL ME FAT-HEAD EVER AGAIN!" Judy angrily barked over of her right shoulder, as she kept moving forward.

Judy's petulance was starting to slowly piss Nick off, as the fox-kitten let out the offended snort from his mouth.

"You know that what is your trouble, Judy? You're quite stubborn, overly serious and easily being pissed off from the harmless joke. Those things are unusual to the foxes. And speaking of which, your petulance reminds me about the some muskox-butt I met once. His name was Bogo, and he was as stubborn and bad-tempered as a grumpy grizzly bear. But I'm starting to see that even his bad-tempered nature is nothing compared to one of yours!" Nick said, bursting openly out of his mouth all that frustration he had held towards Judy's gruff and moody behavior from the last passed days since they met.

 **Elsewhere**...

As the foxes were heading towards the wood area...

...the moose brothers were still hanging on the back of their own mammoth, kept going with the rest of the herd through of the hilly area.

Both the moose were hanging there in the deep silence, and they were still too bitter at each other from their earlier argument to speak with each other.

However, the silence between the moose brothers was broken when Pronk suddenly spotted their fox companions having already departed from the herd of the mammoths and that they were already walking a far away... without them.

"Oh, gee! I think that our fox traveling companions are leaving, eh?" Pronk said to his brother before Nodding with his head to the direction where he saw the foxes.

Bucky himself turned to look at the direction to where his brother had nodded with his head, and gasped in surprise (with both his ears and head jumping upright) after he himself spotted the foxes far away, and being about to disappear behind of the trees.

"And yet without us... even without telling us nothing that they were dropping off in here." Pronk complained, much to his brother's agreement.

"Yeah! We'd better drop off as well and follow them, or else we'll lose him and that bunny hunter with that nasty stick-thing will catch us unable to defend ourselves. Come on!" Bucky said to his brother.

The moose brothers then started to drop off from the mammoth's back to follow the foxes, or at least they even tried.

For the animals with the hoof-fingered hands and legs, the attempt to drop off from the mammoth's back was easily said than done.

Both Bucky's and Pronk's fingers did not get good grip from the mammoth's thick and slightly slippy wool and their hands (along with their legs) slipped at each time they attempted to get up with the support of their limbs, and their hanging position on the mammoth's back, along with their natural weight (700 kg in case of "bull" moose), which gave the brothers more difficulties to get off from the mammoth's backs.

And not to mention about with each others tangled legs and horns while trying.

"Hey! Watch your antlers, if you please?" Bucy said, as Pronk leaned his head and his antlers too much against his.

"Don't kick my legs with yours!" Pronk said bacK with the scolding tone, as Bucky kept accidentally kicking his hind legs with his right one while attempting to get off from mammoth's back.

The moose brothers continued this eight minutes, with no avail, until both of the moose quit from even trying, as they faced the sore truth.

"This is no use! I can't get good grip from the mammoth's wool. In fact, I can't get off!" Bucky admitted after several failed attempts.

"Me neither, Bro." Pronk admitted as well.

Both moose then looked at the direction, where they had saw the foxes last time.

The foxes were now out of the sight, having disappeared among of the trees and were probably now a far away from them.

"HEY GUYS! WAIT FOR US! WE - kind of - WE'RE LEFT BEHIND, AND..." Pronk attempted to call for the foxes, asking them to wait up for them before, Bucky, rolling his eyes, cut off his brother's useless shouting after the foxes.

"Knock it off, bro. It's no use. They've probably reached to beyond of the range of your cry, and that they're probably too far to hear us anyway." Bucky said to his brother, who quickly lowered his head down and nodded as an agreement.

"Yeah, maybe you're right, bro. Besides, what's the rush we have anyway? I guess that we'll try to drop off in the next stop and then catch up with those guys later. What you say?" Pronk suggested to his brother.

"Works for me, bro. At least we do not need to worry about that bunny hunter any more. That longear is far away behind and we safe with the mammoths." Bucky said with the positive feelings about his brother's suggestion.

Bucky then sniffed some fresh morning air into his snout, before he let out the relaxed sigh out of his mouth.

"Besides, this is kinda a good trip, eh?" Bucky asked from his brother.

"Beauty, yeah." Pronk agreed.

And so on, the moose brothers remained as hitchhikers on their mammoth's back, as the herd kept moving through the hills.

Pronk then turned to his brother.

"Well, Bucky? You know, I was thinking that... Might it be a good time for me to drive now? You wanna switch the drivers now when you're probably tired or you have had enough of driving after driving this mammoth through the whole night?" Pronk asked with the hesitating tone, reminding his brother that he had already "drove" their mammoth ride all of time since they hitchhiked the ride from the mammoths.

"Yes, I am, and still I feel nothing." Bucky answered, presumably hinting to his brother that the answer to his question was negative.

"Now, just relax and enjoy the ride until to the next stop." Bucky simply suggested.

Pronk frowned and snorted in disappointment.

"Okay then." Pronk silently agreed.

"WHEE." Pronk added with still disappointed yet sarcastic tone of voice, as he lifted his arms up to the air, like sarcastically waving cheerfully them in the air.

 **Meanwhile...**

After departing from the mammoths and moose, the fierce argument between of Judy and Nick had grown into the high level each minute.

"I'm sorry if we're lost, OK?" Nick apologized with the frustrated tone of voice, which Judy, however, rudely ignored.

"Even though it's pretty much your fault that we got lost in the first place." Nick mumbled as he turned his head to the another direction and glared at Judy from the left corners of his eyes.

However, thanks to Judy's highly sensitive sense of hearing, Judy heard it pretty well, despite Nick saying it with the lowered voice.

And hearing that Nick openly blamed her, and her only, from their current status of being lost in the wilderness, Judy frowned even harder in anger-leveled frustration before she stopped from her steps and angrily turned at Nick.

"ARGH! WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY FAULT?!" Judy barked angrily at Nick, before she let the frustrated sigh out of her mouth.

"UGH! THAT'S IT!" Judy added angrily, as she immediately turned away from Nick and kept moving rapidly forward.

However, much to her further annoyance and frustration, Nick hadn't finished yet.

"Yeah! It's pretty much of your fault, and I mean it! Riding on mammoth was alone your idea, remember? But did you happen to forget, that as the wandering and free-spirited animals, the mammoths do only what they themselves want, and they go only where they themselves want? mammoths will never do what others want them to do or go where others want them to go. That's why the mammoths brought us in middle of completely to me strange wilderness. Of course I tried to tell you about this but somebody didn't want to listen to me." Nick protested.

"Then why did you yourself even agreed to join me to the mammoth ride, if you knew this all along?!" Judy angrily asked over of her shoulder.

"Even though I found your habit to ride on the back of mammoth as a strange habit and unusual for the foxes, I joined to it 'cause I wanted to try a new things and have some fun, while we're heading to the Foxtopia and to that precious three-pointed Mountain of yours!" Nick answered.

The parts "try a new things" and "have some fun" frustrated Judy even more.

"OH, YEAH! Well, without your childish behavior and your annoyingly non-stopping talking mouth, we should be there already today and not lost in the wilderness. And that is definitely your fault!" Judy shouted, stubbornly claiming their current state to be Nick's fault only.

Nick took this claim as a offense.

"You have a good way of expressing your gratitude for that that I even bothered to take you there in the first place, and you're not the first animal throughout my life to show gratitude for my efforts towards those ones in the need of help. Besides, without me you would have never get this far, so you'd better show some gratitude and respect for me instead of trying to blame me for your own mistakes." Nick protested firmly.

"Well, maybe my mistake was even trust you as a guide in the first place." Judy said firmly back, stubbornly refusing to see the fault in herself as Nick claimed, which was also fueled by her own prejudice and already strong hatred towards the foxes.

"Just remember, that if it weren't for me, you'd still be hanging in that trap UPSIDE DOWN right now, swinging from side to side and banging your stone-hard fat head into the trees and rocks while hanging there like some kind of delicious mouthful for any fox-eating predator to retrieve. Would have you liked that even more?! " Nick said back, reminding Judy that at least he helped her to get down that tree, where she was hanging upside down from her trapped leg on the day when they met.

That reminder got Judy to stop again and turn around to angrily confront Nick face to face.

"Well, hanging upside down from that tree, as well as all those head aches, and even being eaten by some fox-eating predator would have been much more better idea than being stuck in the middle of nowhere with you and your... your... blabbing mouth." Judy said...

...before Judy started to move towards Nick with the sudden steps, provoking the fox-kitten to back off, while mocking him with the mocking-sounding tone.

" _Oh, no. I'm so lost. I can't find my mommy. You wanna heard an another story? Will you take me to this Foxtopia-thing?_ " Judy mocked Nick, until...

"OH, SWEET CHEESE AND CRACKERS! WHY DON'T YOU JUST GROWN UP!" Judy barked to Nick even more angry than before.

This was then the moment when Nick's own tolerance of Judy's behavior and treatment towards him had its last straw.

Fine! There's a bottom in my sack too! If you're so ungrateful for my efforts to help you, and if you're so sick of my entire presence around of you, then maybe I should just get out of here and leave you on your own. How does that sound?! Nick asked with the frustrated tone.

"Fine for me! Go ahead! Get out of here!" Judy agreed.

"Fine, you stubborn fat-headed bison in the fox's skin!" Nick said with an insult.

"Fine, you super-annoying stupid fox!" Judy said, returning to insult with the insult.

"Fine." Nick said, though this time without and insult, only glaring angrily at the vixen in front of him.

Both of them then stood in there for a moment in silence, glaring angrily at each other straight into the eyes.

During of which, Judy could swear that she somehow saw in Nick's eyes that the fox-kitten was emotionally hurt, but he refused to show it. Instead, he hided it perfectly under of his frustrated- and angry-looking self.

 _Never let them see they get to you._

That line with Nick's deep and echoing voice echoed in her head, as she remembered Nick explaining to her the last night the foxes' way to fight back the prejudice from the other animals against the foxes.

"You know what? Maybe the other animals do not treat you with the ill-way just because you're the fox... but maybe rather because your company really sucks!" Nick said firmly straight to Judy's faces, though with not angrily raised voice.

After hearing that, Judy's head jumped a bit upward, and her eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"As you don't show any interest or attention to the traveling companions, except by barking at them and mistreating them without the reason, but instead you're apparently more interested about that precious three pointed Mountain of yours... and yet you're strangely driving yourself forward with the obsession-like rush to get there."

"I know that you want so bad to meet your father's Spirit again, as you said to me last night. But in case if you didn't know, the Spirits have no rush to anywhere, and they can wait for you many days, weeks, months, years and, who knows, even for eternity, unlike the living does. YOU NEED TO RELAX! Like the Spirits, you also have no hurry nowhere! Nick added with slowly raised voice...

...before the fox-kitten then turned his attention away from the vixen, turned himself around to leave and started to walk to the another direction and away from Judy, leaving her on her own, just as she wished.

"But if you want to be alone, in the empty, silent and unhappy solitude of yours, then it's better for you to be off alone, by yourself." Nick said, as he kept walking away, without even looking behind.

"I'll respect your wish with all understanding, but for you to know, that I am the only - and soon out of the sight and from the whole area departing - creature near of your personal, grumpy and ice-cold solitude, who knows the location of Foxtopia and that your precious Mountain. On your own in here, you would only get yourself lost to these wilderness far more worse than what we're right now."

"Then it would be a moment when you realize that it's far too late to regret that you ever sent your only guide off, because of your own stubbornness and an angry outburst fueled by your obsession to meet your father's Spirit again." Nick added, still not looking behind of him over of his shoulder, as he was about to disappear behind of the nearby rocks.

But before Nick disappeared behind of them, the fox-kitten turned for the one last time around to look at Judy, who was still following his going, still angrily frowning and having that same stubborn expression on her face.

"And you know what, I wouldn't care if you get yourself lost out there for the rest of your life. Not, unless you finally agree to see the fault from yourself instead from others."

"Until then, good luck in getting yourself lost in the wilderness, within seconds I guess... have a good time with your only travel companion left, the empty, silent and unhappy solitude of yours... AND SO LONG... Dumb vixen." Nick both angrily wished and mumbled, before the fox-kitten finally disappeared behind of the rocks and out of Judy's sight.

And after the argument was over since Nick's departure, Judy herself, tired and frustrated from the argue, felt inside of her the great urge to turn around and continue the separated way as well as Nick did, despite the fox-kitten's warnings for her to get herself easily lost to these strange wilderness.

But, however, she didn't move a muscle to turn around and leave from the area for good...

...but she remained to stand still instead, with her eyes still locked to the direction to where Nick had just went/disappeared.

Using her accurate hearing to ensure that was Nick just kidding, as she strongly suspected so, and remained in hiding behind of the rocks so that he could follow her in secret. But all what she could hear were only Nick's steps, which, however, were a pretty quickly receding away as the sounds of the steps were quickly fading away... without stopping for a second.

Judy was surprised, when she realized that Nick wasn't kidding about his claim to leave and about leaving her on her own at all, as she had suspected.

This unexpected move from Nick also triggered her inner conscience, as it started to scold her harshly from inside of her for being needlessly so mean, so bitter and so harsh towards Nick, that provoked him to leave her in the first place.

And as a sign of it, while still keeping her frowned yet from Nick's seriously meant departure surprised expression on her face, Judy let the deep sigh out of her mouth as she lowered her head down while shaking it.

Judy then started to go through in her mind everything what Nick had said to her before departing to behind of the rocks.

 _Riding on mammoth was alone your idea, remember?_

 _As the wandering and free-spirited animals, the mammoths do only what they themselves want, and they go only where they themselves want._

 _Mammoths will never do what others want them to do or go where others want them to go._

 _I tried to tell you about this but somebody didn't want to listen to me._

 _You have a good way of expressing your gratitude that I even bothered to take you there in the first place._

 _Without me you would have never get this far._

 _if it weren't for me, you'd still be hanging in that trap UPSIDE DOWN right now, swinging from side to side and banging your stone-hard fat head into the trees and rocks while hanging there like some kind of delicious mouthful for any fox-eating predator to retrieve._

 _Maybe the other animals do not treat you with the ill-way just because you're the fox... but maybe rather because your company really sucks!_

 _As you don't show any interest or attention to the traveling companions, except by barking at them and mistreating them without the reason, but instead you're apparently more interested about that precious three pointed Mountain of yours._

 _Spirits have no rush to anywhere, and they can wait for you many days, weeks, months, years and, who knows, even for eternity._

 _Like the spirits, you also have no hurry nowhere._

 _I am the only - and soon out of the sight and from the whole area departing - creature near of your personal, grumpy and ice-cold solitude, who knows the location of Foxtopia and that your precious Mountain._

 _On your own in here, you would only get yourself lost to these wilderness far more worse than what we're right now._

 _Then it would be a moment when you realize that it's far too late to regret that you ever sent your only guide off, because of your own stubbornness and an angry outburst fueled by your obsession to meet your father's Spirit._

 _I wouldn't care if you get yourself lost out there for the rest of your life. Not, unless you finally agree to see the fault from yourself instead from others._

 _Good luck in getting yourself lost in the wilderness, within seconds I guess... have a good time with your only travel companion left, the empty, silent and unhappy solitude of yours... AND SO LONG... Dumb vixen._

Even though Judy's stubbornness still refused to find the fault from herself, her conscience eventually forced her to silently admit to herself the fact that Nick has a point with everything what he had just said to her before departing.

Riding on mammoths was indeed entirely her idea in the first place. And as the motivation of which served the fact, that she was being hunted by her big sister Jill, who was after her with the intentions to kill her - or at least her in this fox-form - for some reason she didn't know.

And the mammoths - as her own father had told her a long time ago, when she was still a little bunny, and so did Nick a two days backwards when they hitchhiked the ride from the mammoth herd to get far away from Jill's reach - even though the mammoths didn't mind about the hitchhikers on their backs, mammoths would never agree to deviate from the path of their own in anyone else sake.

Judy's conscience also forced her to admit the several certain facts about Nick, that without Nick - as he was also the only animal around, and it happened to be fox, who knew the location of the Three-Pointed-Mountain, and also the only one who voluntarily agreed to take her to there - she would have never reached to this far on her journey.

And yet so far, Judy hadn't showed any gratitude towards Nick for all his efforts for her and even bothering to take her to the Mountain.

And in addition of that, Judy found the truth in Nick's words, that because this whole area was as strange to her as it was to Nick, on her own and without Nick's aid as her only guide, she would only get herself lost even worse to these wildernesses, with no hope to find the correct direction... meaning that she was dependent on Nick's aid and guide to get to that mountain, even more than what she herself could have imagined, despite her guide being the fox.

And as long as Judy stood still in place, thinking about every word Nick had said in her mind while watching to the direction to where Nick had just disappeared, all these realizations started to weight her conscience with the emotionally heavy and stinging feelings, which refused to leave her alone.

Something which started to affected to her with a large influence. Something like...

...out of nowhere appeared remorse... and shame... of her recent behavior towards Nick.

And speaking of which, judged from all those harsh words and rude behavior with which she had treated Nick ever since they met each other, Judy finally realized that Nick was maybe more than just right about telling that her companionship indeed sucks...

...as she was totally blinded by her own strong aversion and prejudice against foxes (even though she had two good reasons for that in her past), and her disgust of being physically one of them and being ill-treated like one of them by other animals. And not to mention about her, as Nick called it, unnecessary and obsessive rush to get to the Three-Pointed-Mountain to confront his father and to get rid of this shape of fox...

...and all those three reasons together had increased Judy's obsession and impatience to get to that mountain and change back to bunny, her frustration towards the delays on her way to there and her already strong hatred and prejudice against foxes to the critical level, that she had constantly bossed and barked to Nick and treated him most of the journey like a dead weight - despite being dependent on him as her guide - without any GOOD reason.

And when she lifted her head up once again, her previous frowned expression had changed into more gentler, and all that stubbornness and frustration was replaced by sadness and sense of guilty.

It was then when her eyes caught something very familiar from the highest branches of the nearby tree.

The great Bald Eagle.

It was the same bald eagle, or then it was a strange eagle with the identical features of the one individual, which she had saw sitting on the branch of a nearby tree on that morning when she was found by her mother from the river bank and when she had found herself turned magically into the fox by her father's spirit.

The mighty and large brown-feathered and white-headed bird of prey was not about to attack, much to Judy's relief as the bird of prey's presence reminded her about the eagle-owl from Nick's story about his father, but merely sitting in place on one of the tree's highest branches and he glared down straight at her. without taking his eyes off from Judy.

And as the eagle's gentle eyes were locked at Judy's own, Judy then started to feel the strangely familiar presence, which was something what Judy hadn't felt since the events in the top of that peak, where she had met her father in both his spiritual bunny and the spiritual gigantic eagle forms after her successful fox-hunt.

Her father's spiritual presence!

That was what Judy felt, though she wasn't the shaman unlike her mother back in her tribe.

The feeling of her father's spiritual presence through of the presence of this down at her glaring mighty eagle got Judy to fall down on all fours immediately and press herself on her stomach against the ground, and Judy also pressed her fox-ears against the back of her skull as a sign of humble submission in front of the large bird of prey, just like the little child does always when he or she was about to get scolded by the parents either for the bad behavior or accidentally or intentionally breaking something.

But despite this, the eagle glared down at her with the gentle and advising look in his eyes rather than with the harsh and ice-cold look, as if the bird of prey had sensed Judy's inner feel of guilty and remorse for her needlessly harsh and bitter behavior towards Nick, and knowing that the situation no longer needed harsh rebukes.

And so, instead of scolding the submitting vixen any further, the eagle started to nod his head sideways, nodding with it to the direction to where Nick had just went...

...as if the eagle was gently advising Judy to let go of her pride and go after Nick and make peace with him, instead of turning around and going separated way and get lost far more worse than this. Or at least Judy believed that it was exactly what the eagle meant with his head-gesture.

The eagle then, after ensuring/sensing from Judy's eyes that the vixen had got his message, turned around and spread his wide wings around as the bird of prey was preparing to take off.

And seeing this, Judy quickly bounced up from the ground.

"WAIT!" Judy called for the eagle with the pleading tone.

But it was too late, the eagle leaped from branch into the air and flew away, leaving Judy behind.

Judy stood there silently for a while, as she kept her with the heartbroken sorrow and tears filled eyes locked on the direction, to where the eagle had just flew and disappeared behind of the trees and the higher rocks.

However, Judy quickly snapped out of it, as her attention turned next from the skies to the rocks, behind of which Nick had disappeared...

...and after thinking quickly, Judy eventually decided to take the eagle's advice and go after Nick to make peace with him, and in addition to that, Judy promised at the same time to treat Nick lot more fairly and equally from now on, before she rushed with the hurry towards the rocks to catch Nick, hoping that the fox-kitten hadn't got too far and out of her reach.

 **TO BE CONTINUE...**

 **I hope that you enjoyed reading this chapter.**

 **If there's some errors in the text, my apology for them. I love English language, even though m** **y writing in the English may not be perfect sometimes.**

 **Easter Egg:** **There's a small hint from the first Ice Age movie in the text.**


	19. Chapter 19: Apology

**Hello, once again, to all viewers and readers, as well as for current and future followers and fans. It's finally time for my "FOX OF FRIENDSHIP" story to continue.**  
 ** **I'm sorry people that I haven't updated my FOX OF FRIENDSHIP lately since last chapter in this year's January. I lost my old computer to the several problems and because of which I was forced to buy a new one. My new computer has lately helped me to find the errors in my story's text, so I decided to reboot my entire text by going through my story, separate some parts of my story from the very first chapters into their own chapters and correct - and slightly change - the text.****

 **FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 19. APOLOGY  
**

 **SO, ENJOY THE READING.**

Judy hurried on all fours pass of the boulders and through of the bushes behind of the boulders to catch up Nick, hoping that the fox-kitten hadn't got too far and far beyond of her reach.

However, she searched for Nick with her eye sight, looking there and here, everywhere, to catch even some glimpse of the fox's fluffy and black-tipped tail disappearing behind of the trees and bushes or the glimpse of the fox's black-tipped ears moving above of the bushes.

But, however, there was no any sight of Nick in anywhere, which prompted Judy to use her tracking skills, which she used the last time she hunted down that fox earlier, instead of pointlessly using her eyes.

And so, Judy remained still, closed her eyes, lifted her pointed fox ears up and fell into a full concentration, attempting to use her the rabbits' natural accurate hearing - which was now merged with the foxes' sense of hearing due to the transformation - to locate Nick's current location by listening his steps, to which she had mostly used to.

The merged senses of hearing of rabbits and foxes didn't helped her a much, as the sounds of Nick's steps were still fading and mostly covered by the other sounds of the surroundings, mostly by in the wind shaking leaves of the trees, the birds' singing, buzzing of the bugs and the squirrels, chipmunks and mice nibbling/munching acorns and seeds somewhere nearby caring a little of her presence. And along with that from the far distance echoing woolly mammoths' Toot-Toot-sound, the cougar's or saber-tooth tiger's echoing roar, eagle's loud and sharp scream in the air, a thunder-like galloping of the passing herd of the horses and the growl of undetected and peacefully passing grumpy woolly rhinoceros.

And when this attempt failed, Judy attempted to use for the first time the foxes' accurate sense of smell by lowering her fox snout closer to the ground and sniffing it for the several times to catch Nick's scent from the grass and leaves of the bushes... while looking for some marks Nick had possibly left behind along with his scent while walking through of the area.

During of her transformation in her father's Spirit's paws to her developed foxes' accurate sense of smell had worked when she had caught Jill's scent and detected her presence back in that spot where she was caught by the trap and where she met Nick for the first time.

However, in case of Nick's absence, Judy realized very soon that this one was a quite challenging, even for her in her fox form... and despite the fact that she already knew that what did the foxes smell.

Because she was unable to recognize Nick's scent from the several other scents of surroundings, due to the fact that she had never caught Nick's scent into his nose before in case of such of situations such like this one, due to her earlier willingness for the as long distances between of her and Nick as possible so that she was unable to feel Nick's fox scent in her nose.

She of course got some scents from the several found animal tracks, but they were mostly the other animals, whom had passed from this some time ago, but not the scent of the fox, which had most likely mixed with the other animals tracks scent.

However, after looking for Nick's scent through of the animal tracks for the next thirty-forty minutes and finding nothing even with the foxes excellent sense of smell, Judy suddenly caught the scent from the leaves of the nearby bushes she was about to pass.

However, this scent was a pretty weird... because it smelled like the mixture of two-three predators and one bird of prey all at the same time.

Judy started to sniff the source of the weird scent to catch up each scent merged with the others to recognize them one by one, which proved to be a quite difficult as well as the attempt to recognize Nick's scent from the other mixed animal tracks.

"Lynx?" Judy whispered to herself as she caught, after fifteen minutes, the scent of the feline that belonged to the lynx, that was one of the fox-eating predators.

And after another fifteen minutes of sniffing...

"Wolf?" Judy whispered again after catching the lupine scent belonged to the gray wolf... the largest representative of dog animals, carnivorous, a pack hunter and the same family with the foxes. But despite that, the wolves also were among of those fox-eating predators.

Judy kept sniffing, hoping that this wasn't gonna waste a much of her time to catch Nick before he reaches to even further.

Next scent was childishly easy to guess, and it didn't take any more than slightly over five minutes.

"Grizzly bear? Full-grown" Judy whispered. Unlike with the lynxes and wolves, the bear's scent was far more powerful. And no wonder if it was, as Nick had already mentioned for a many times over that he had spent some time with the grizzly bears and probably got some of their scent into himself.

Judy was for a moment confused that why there was the scents of both lynxes and wolves, whom were the fox-eating predators...

...and the scent of the grizzly bear, who were mostly vegetarians, but eat both salmons and moose as the meat-side of their diet and do not bother to hunt the smaller and more swift and sly foxes, except if they're really angry.

Also, bear is in fact a much larger and stronger than both wolf and lynx and has enough strength to kill both of them in the duel.

However, lynxes are rather 'civilized' and more reasonable predators, who would rather either peacefully negotiate or completely leave bears alone rather that antagonize them.

A cougars, however, may sometimes challenge the bigger and massive bears into the fight, though cougars would often give up and run away from the bear's unbeatable and deadly strength after two-three failed attempts to strike them. However, the cougars would also antagonize the bears by killing their cubs or stealing their kills without engaging the bigger ones into the duels.

But the wolves may give even to the larger and stronger bear a real challenge due to being the animals living in the packs and using the teamwork to outsmart/defeat the bear, if it is about the bear's kill the wolves want for themselves. However, the gigantic one would be very deadly to the entire pack and would chase its enemy, prey or intruder at its territory so long until it's dead.

And if there was the mixed scent of wolves, lynxes and bears in the air but not the particular fox-eating predators' tracks or foot prints everywhere to be seen, that would mean only one thing.

Judy started to think that Nick had probably covered his clothes, at least some parts of it, with the scents of the fox-eating animals like foxes and lynxes to cover his fox-scent from his natural predators, so that both wolves and lynxes, who detects the scent in his clothes, would think that the source of the scent would be just one of their kind passing from nearby. Tricking them by their species' own scent would ensure that the fox-eating predators would never suspect that there's the fox nearby, at least as long as he would stay in hidden and keep moving to evade the fox-eating predators from detecting him with their eyes. And the bear scent had a bigger role in that trick as a 'Plan B'. Because once detecting the scent of the full-grown bear, the fox-eating predators would hurriedly or willingly leave from the area rather than investigate and face off the full grown bear.

The reputation of short-tempered and grumpy bear was well known, as well as the consequences of either accidentally or deliberately antagonizing the bear.

"Can't believe that I say that, but... pretty clever from the fox." Judy whispered to herself, quite impressed of Nick's sly technique to evade his species natural predators.

This reminded Judy about one of her grandfather's stories that told about her ancestor named _Hariarhael_ , their tribe's very first and deeply honored chieftain and one of the very first rabbit chieftains whom were granted the great honor to join the Great Spirits among of the _Northern Lights_ , and his legendary speech given to the people of the rabbits a many centuries ago, and since then it has been transported through of stories from generation to another.

 _All the world is your enemy, and it will always be your worst enemy. And if you ever get caught, you'll be killed and eaten. But first you must be caught - dig your way to safety, listen sounds around you, flee the danger like the wind, surrender to your instincts. Be cunning and full of tricks like a fox, and you my children, your children and their children, will beat the world._

Judy started then to consider some facts with that ' _Be cunning and full of tricks like a fox_ ' part in Hariarhael's speech, comparing it with the rabbits' own wit and physical survival skills; digging, listening and running, to the foxes' cunning.

"Maybe, just maybe, the foxes and rabbits aren't so different from each others after all... but still enemies, however." Judy said to herself, as she kept sniffing around for the scents.

And then, her fox-nose caught the scent, that caused her to wriggle her nose in disgust after she recognized it.

"Yuck! Roasted meat of grouses!" Judy complained.

The scent of the roasted meat of grouses reminded Judy about Nick having mentioned twice during of their journey that the other foxes in this Foxtopia-thing used to eat the roasted grouses that were mentioned by Nick to live nearby of this Foxtopia.

Though her people sometimes eat salmons, but only rarely and especially in the winter when the stored vegetarian food began to run out, as the fishes fished by the rabbits are mostly used to trade them for the fish-eaters, otters and especially bears for example, in exchange for the bear's coat, berries, honey and the skins, antlers and bones from the bears' hunted animals for their tents. clothes and spear heads...

...The thought made her stomach turn inside out and made her to feel a bit dizzy, due to the fact that even rabbits are the prey for many rabbit-eating animals, red foxes, wild dogs, forest cats, hawks, weasels, badgers, owls and so on.

However, Judy's fox-nose caught another scent, that was both fresh and even the sweetest juicy one than the first one.

"Yum... Blueberries." Judy whispered with the water on her tongue.

Such of sweet and juicy scent reminded her about many of sweet times in her childhood, when she and her sisters used to spend their free-time by looking for the large bush full of ripe, sweet and juicy blueberries, which they had gathered a huge amounts into their baskets to last at least the next month. She was even able to taste the blueberries in her mouth when she either ate them from the basked or ate them in the cub filled with the milk gotten from the trades with the other animals.

Well, her mother had once told to them that they should save the blueberries for to be used later rather than eat the entire basket within one day. The majority of her sisters and brothers, her including, were obedient towards her mother, but her stubborn big brother Shane didn't listen and instead ate all his berries within one day...

...only to end up to have stomach aches for overeating of the berries in the next day.

Judy giggled at this memory heartily, until she came back to the reality.

"So, you too love blueberries, don't you Nick? Good for me if you do." Judy asked with the smile on her lips as she sniffed the sweet scent of the blueberries into her fox nose.

And because the scent was a quite fresh, Judy guessed that just a moment after her and Nick's separation from each other after their fierce argument and Nick's disappearance from her sight, Nick must've poured with his paws some blueberries from his leather bag, which he'd visibly carried with him since their first met, and poured them into his mouth to drown his sorrow from the argument into the sweet taste of the blueberries.

In fact, the blueberries sweet taste indeed helps to drown the sorrows... though for a while of course.

"Good for me if you do." Judy added, as she realized/assumed that the scent of the blueberries - along with the several dozens of blueberries lying in the line on ground beneath and leading through and behind of the bushes - to lead her straight to Nick wherever he was.

And in addition to all, it would be easy to follow the scent of the blueberries if Nick had touched with his with the fresh blueberry juice messed paws to the tree trunks, rocks and bushes on his way to the different direction. Yet there was no any other blueberry bushes all around to make tracking the scent confusing and following Nick even difficult and time wasting.

And so, Judy immediately followed Nick's blueberry-scent route, which seemed to lead up to the rocky hills.

 **...**

Later...

After some time, as the trees and bushes were left behind, Judy eventually reached to the rocky top of the hill while following Nick's blueberry-scent marks the fox kitten had left behind while storming off.

But, however, once he reached to there, Judy noticed that the scent of the blueberries were starting to fade off from the surroundings, probably due to the fact that Nick may have either stroked his paw against the rocks and tree trunks too many times to make the remains of the blueberry juice to go off from his paws, or else he had washed his paws in the some nearby pool's water to get his paws clean.

Whatever one of these two facts were true, the result would be the very same...

Nick had got away.

Judy was mentally distraught and she couldn't believe the fact that Nick, the only creature formerly around and near of her, as Nick had said, 'personal, grumpy and ice-cold solitude', who knew the location of both this Foxtopia and that three-pointed Mountain, was truly gone and apparently beyond of her reach...

...and just then when she was starting to see the fault from herself rather than from his only travel companion and even to regret that she ever sent him off due to her own stubbornness and an angry outburst fueled by her own obsession to meet her father's Spirit so that she can change back to rabbit...

...and even after when she was very close to catch him!

And through of Nick's sudden absence, she lost her only chance to get to that three-pointed Mountain and change back into the bunny.

Judy started to quickly grow desperate and even panic, as she slowly realized that through Nick's absence she was apparently doomed to be lost in these uncharted wilderness and, even worst, remain as a gray-furred red fox - and through of that to remain as the ever-lasting target of prejudice or to be one day fatally caught by some the fox-eating predators - for the rest of her life, without hope for the another chance and without a chance to see her dear mother or any other loved ones of her, including Jill, ever again.

However, Judy was far from willing to give up so easily from looking for her only companion, only guide and only hope to get to that Mountain and ask her father's Spirit to change back to the rabbit once more.

Not now after having reached so far and gone through of so much, including one narrow survival from her currently insane big-sister's bloodthirsty attack.

Now when her senses of hearing and smell had outlived their duties, Judy resorted to the last solution.

"NICK?!" Judy bellowed into the air, hoping her in the air fortunately echoing call to reach to Nick's range of hearing and get him stop. And once she had let her call out to the air, she remained both silent and still to wait for the answer from that fox kitten.

However, after waiting for some time, about ten minutes or so, there was not the answer.

"NICK?!" Judy tried again, as louder and she could.

However, even after another ten minutes, there was no answer yet.

"NICK, WHERE ARE YOU?!" Judy tried for the third time.

And, after waiting for the answer for ten minutes for a third time, still no answer from that fox.

Judy's patience was starting to run out after calling for Nick for three times and waiting for the answer about over thirty minutes. But at the same time as her patience started to fade away, her desperation was still growing... and so did both of her desire to find Nick and her obsession to get to that Mountain.

"NICK, PLEASE! ANSWER ME!" Judy tried for a fourth time, and this time with the pleading tone.

And even after waiting for the answer for ten minutes for the fourth time, her patience was starting to low to that point that she had no other choice but to bitterly swallow her pride and open herself to the fox... if even that would convince that fox to come back and continue to lead him to the three-pointed mountain.

That was her last hope.

"NICK? LOOK! I'M SORRY THAT I YELLED TO YOU LIKE THAT! I WAS SUCH OF DUMBASS, A BIG JERK FUELED BY THE FRUSTRATION, OBSESSION AND SELFISHNESS, AND I'M SORRY FOR THAT! I DIDN'T MEANT TO SEND YOU AWAY AND I REGRET THAT TOO ALREADY!" Judy bellowed into the sky, hoping Nick to hear her pleads.

However, after five minutes impatiently waiting for the answer from Nick, there was nothing.

Judy attempted yet for the second time, opening herself to Nick even further.

"LOOK, NICK! YOU WERE RIGHT! MY OWN POINTLESS RUSH, SELFISH PUSHING US FORWARD AND MY INABILITY TO SEE THE FAULT FROM ME MYSELF THAN FROM THE OTHERS PREVENTED ME TO BE A GOOD TRAVEL COMPANION TO YOU IN EXCHANGE FOR YOUR AID TO GUIDANCE FOR ME TO MY GOAL... AND THAT MY COMPANIONSHIP REALLY SUCKS! I CAN SEE THAT NOW THANKS TO YOU! AND EVEN I AM SURPRISED AND EVEN SOMEWHAT IMPRESSED THAT YOU'VE MANAGED TO BE SO TOLERANT TOWARDS MY RUDE AND COLD ATTITUDE TOWARDS YOU ALL THIS WAY!"

And after that, Judy kept a small break to catch her breath... until she continued.

"BUT PLEASE! DON'T ABANDON ME HERE! DON'T LEAVE ME TO GET EVEN MORE LOST INTO THE UNCHARTED WILDERNESS AND TO BE SOME FOX-EATING PREDATOR'S LUNCH. DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR FOX FUR A HEART TO GIVE THIS BIG SUPER IDIOTIC JERK ANOTHER CHANCE? AND I WISH THAT YOUR ANSWER IS POSITIVE, BECAUSE WITHOUT YOU I'LL NEVER MAKE IT UP TO THE THREE-POINTED MOUNTAIN AND THAT FOXTOPIA OF YOURS? AND IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND ABOUT LEAVING AND ABANDONING ME HERE ON MY OWN, I'LL BE IN EXCHANGE A BETTER TRAVEL COMPANION TO YOU, NOT PUSH US ONWARD WHICH SUCH OF RUSH AND NOT TO YELL TO YOU ANYMORE, OKAY? DO WE HAVE A DEAL? PINKY SWEAR?" Judy pleaded, as she was slowly but certainly running out of ideas.

And yet, still no answer... for the other ten minutes.

Nick had totally abandoned her on her own.

The desperation was starting to overrun Judy's mind and spirit... so much that she stopped the pointless shouting and calling for Nick, fell on his knees to the ground and then onto her front paws, and then she lowered her head down, closed her eyes tight and prepared herself to embrace the bitter reality and her final incoming fate: being never capable to reach to the three-pointed Mountain...

...thus never having a chance to meet her father's Spirit and change back into the rabbit...

...doomed to live the rest of her miserable life as a fox...

...doomed as a target of prejudices, abuse and rejection from the other animals because of her being trapped in the fur of fox...

...doomed to be an easy prey for any fox-eating predator, due to her rabbit cunning and survival skills being not in the same level with the foxes' own...

...being hunted down by her own insane big sister, if she ever fives up from hunting her with such of bloodthirsty and blind rage...

...never capable to return back home in Bunnyburrow...

...and never able to see her dear mother and her dear brothers and sisters ever again.

Such of thoughts filled her mind and spirit to the point that it was too much for her to bear, that he was nearly about to burst into tears out of despair, managing just barely to hold them back, though her tears filled the narrow spaces between of her eyelids.

"Pl-pl-please! Y-you're my on-only hope." Judy pleaded, for the one last time, though this time with much more lower and despairing tone of voice.

Judy remained in that state for a while, gritting her teeth together and draining tears of despair.

Until...

Someone suddenly appeared out of nowhere and right in front of her, with such of stealth and the silence-breaking sound that it startled Judy so badly that she rapidly bounced up from the ground and into the upright position, gasping out of fright.

Judy even leaned too hastily to backwards, that she eventually lost her balance and fell off her feet and landed onto her butt to the ground.

And after her landing on her but, she immediately locked her eyes to the eyes of the one whom had appeared out of nowhere in front of her.

It was Nick.

Judy felt a quite embarrassed for getting startled by the fox kitten.

It would have been entirely different if she had been a rabbit in this moment and Nick would have been an adult fox looking for an easy meal, and it wouldn't be any different thing even as a fox, if there was some fox-eating predator in Nick's place.

Then it would have been a big and fatal mistake to leave her guard open.

"About time, you big dumbass vixen. I was starting to get tired of hiding in the bushes while waiting for your confess and apology." Nick said, humorously revealing to Judy that he had been watching her from the bushes for all a time while she was both looking, tracking and calling for him.

Judy frowned at this revelation.

"We're you spying me all my way up here from the bushes?" Judy asked with the annoyed tone of voice, assuming Nick having led her up here by deliberately leaving the scent marks that smells like blueberries while storming off in order to spark her hope to catch him... only to led her into the dead end with no scent marks nor any trace of his presence, forcing her into the desperate state and confess her own mistakes from which she fiercely and stubbornly blamed Nick in their argument.

However...

"Nope... only after then when you shouted "NICK, WHERE ARE YOU?!" and "NICK, PLEASE! ANSWER ME!"" Nick answered with the honest tone and smirk, mimicking with the loud voice Judy's calls for him after she lost the fox kitten's tracks and was on the verge of despair

"I was in fact about to come back for you, as the prejudiced and rejected foxes common motto is "stick together against the world". And in addition of that, I'm also a pretty quick to drop the old grudges, no matter how big jerk the one individual is, even if he or she is the fox. However, once you were starting to lose your hope and began to openly confess your mistakes with such of despairing tone of voice, I decided to remain hidden and give you your moment, until I eventually decided to reveal myself to you." Nick revealed.

And as Nick continued speaking, Judy crawled back onto her feet from the ground.

"And now when I see that you've learned your lesson, and I have no reason to leave you behind, lost in the wilderness and desperation as your only companion... not even a single iota of grudge from our recent argument left... I will continue to serve as a guide and travel companion of yours 'till we get to Foxtopia and that precious three-pointed Mountain of yours..." Nick said and kept a small pause...

...which allowed Judy to sigh in relief and throw away all desperation and forced willingness to give up from the hope away.

However, as Nick continued...

"...But only if you can keep your part of our reformed deal: To be a better travel companion and not push both of us with pointless rush from now on and to be not yelling to me anymore, in exchange for my help, support and guidance. Okay?" Nick asked with the serious and demanding tone of voice.

Still within herself living rush to get to the three-pointed Mountain and her obsession to change back into the rabbit with the re-sparked hope got Judy to hesitant with her answer. And though within herself still dwelt the remains of her own unwillingness to accept Nick's demands, Judy knew that she had no choice but to accept, fiercely reminding herself that Nick was the only one around of here who knew the location of the three-pointed Mountain and the only one who could lead her to there through of his Foxtopia. and especially because of that, Judy was now than ever before unwilling to lose her only guide and only hope to reach for her goal, even if her only guide was the red fox.

Her only hope lied on Nick's shoulder, even if he didn't completely know the truth of her reason... which Judy couldn't reveal to him.

It was then, when Judy finally gave her answer.

"Okay then, Nick. We have a deal." Judy said with the gentle tone.

Glad to hear that, Nick lifted up his paw and stretched it out and towards Judy, extending his pinky forward in the process.

"Pinky Swear? And this time, no "

Judy sighed and shook her head with the amused smirk.

"Alright, alright, you little bugger!" Judy said humorously, as she lifted up her own paw and stretched it out and towards Nick, extending her own pinky as well.

And with that, both Judy and Nick threw away the remains of their grudges towards each other because of their fierce and pointless argument and performed their Pinky Swear with the same way as they did during of their first meeting, wrapping their pinkies together and slightly shaking them before pulling them off, though this time, Judy didn't pull her own pinky off from the contact with Nick's pinky with the rude attitude and disgusted feelings like back in their first meeting place.

"Well, Nick. Let's move on, shall we?" Judy said, ready to travel the rest of the journey to both Foxtopia and through of that place to her precious three-pointed Mountain.

However, Nick suddenly shook his head negatively, much to Judy's confusion.

"Yes, but not just yet, Judy." Nick said.

And before Judy could even ask the reason from Nick or even protest, Nick opened his mouth already and spoke over of her barely started words.

"C'mon. Follow me. There's a something a very amazing thing I want to show you first before we move on. I found it just after I stormed off from you after our argument and I remained there to marvel at them for a while until I heard you calling me from the lower level of the hill. And the sight of them is so amazing that you must see it with your very own eyes! Follow me!" Nick demanded, as he quickly turned around and hurried towards the top of the hill, on which hillside they were standing at the moment...

...leaving still confused gray-furred vixen behind to look after him with the mixed opinions.

"Uuh... Nick? Can't you... kinda.. show that so-called "amazing thing" to me a little bit later. It's probably some small object you want to take with you and show it to me then. Besides, I still have a three-pointed Mountain to catch and the big rush to meet my father's Spirit up there, remember? And the Mountain is still in the end of the long journey as well as this Foxtopia of yours, so let's keep move on!" Judy demanded, nearly with the rushing and impatient tone of voice...

...which was not left unheard by Nick, as he stopped from hurrying to the topside of the hill and turned around to look at Judy, with the frowned look in his face.

"Remember what did I say to you earlier in the end of our argument, Judy? "Spirits have no rush to anywhere, and they can wait for you many days, weeks, months, years and, who knows, even for eternity". Meaning that your father's Spirit has a plenty of time to wait for you and that you do not have such of obsessed rush to get to that Mountain. And just like your father has a plenty of time to wait for you, you too have a plenty of time to pay a look on what did I found from the topside of the Hill. And that's something you can't take with you, and there's no a second chance to see it for twice. So, come on!" Nick demanded, reminding at the same time Judy about the pointless rush he told her earlier in the end of their argument...

...before the fox kitten turned around and kept going towards the topside of the hill and swiftly disappeared behind the the various boulders of different sizes that covered/surrounded the entire topside of this hill, as if the boulders were together in the shape of some kind of monument or something like that.

Judy sighed out of slight frustration, that there was once again one intermediate stop on their journey to the three-pointed Mountain and Nick's Foxtopia.

However, remembering her part of their deal, if she really wanted to have her only guide around of her and to guide her to her destination for the rest of the journey, she had no other choice but to go to see what the fox kitten wanted to show her.

"Alright, alright, alright, Nick. I'll come to look at this so-called amazing thing of yours... and I hope that it doesn't take a long." Judy mumbled, as she went after Nick and headed towards the topside of the Hill.

 **TO BE CONTINUE...**

 **I hope that you enjoyed reading this chapter.**

 **EASTER EGG**

 **The name** **Hariarhael is actually El-ahrairah (a rabbit from the Watership Down novel/film/TV-series) spelled backwards and the speech...  
**

 _"All the world is your enemy, and it will always be your worst enemy. And if you ever get caught, you'll be killed and eaten. But first you must be caught - dig your way to safety, listen sounds around you, flee the danger like the wind, surrender to your instincts. Be cunning and full of tricks like a fox, and you my children, your children and their children, will beat the world."_

 **...is actually my modified version from Frith's speech:**

 _"All the world will be your enemy, Prince of a Thousand enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you; digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed."_


	20. Chapter 20: Cave Paintings

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 20. THE CAVE PAINTINGS  
**

 **SO, ENJOY THE READING.**

"Nick? Nick! Wait for me." Judy called for the fox cub, as she headed towards the gigantic rock monument in middle of the ring-like formation of various sized boulders and on the top of the hill.

Judy couldn't do nothing else but to stare at the monument with a with her mouth hanging down and her eyes widened out of amazement

The rock monument on the top of the hill was strangely formed from four large and flat... and somewhat smooth-faced... rock plates, that were lifted into upright position and placed in a square formation. The plates were also places a some distance away from each others, - depending on the shape of the topside of the hill - so that in the monument's each corner was left a wide gaps, through of which both sunlight and the mammals could enter into the large space between the stone plates.

There was also a fifth large stone plate, that was placed onto in the upright positions standing stone plates to form the rooftop to the monument.

Whoever build this place in the first place, it probably has been already centuries, as there was clear signs on the outside surfaces of the stone plates, due to the pass of centuries: Such like gaps and cracks. A time, raining and heat had caused the erosion, that had left to the plates uneven surfaces. To the surface of the stone plates had also grown mosses and small trees and the birds had build their nests onto the rooftop forming plate and to the various gaps all around of the monument.

However, the monument did not seem to be so badly dilapidated that one of the plates would eventually give up and cause the entire formation to collapse... and in the worst case, to even cause the rock slide.

"Over here! Come to look at this!" Nick called for Judy in one of the monument's corner's gaps, waving both of his paws towards himself like gesturing Judy to hurry and follow him, before the fox kitten disappeared again inside of the monument.

Judy kept walking towards the monument, until he arrived to one of its corner's gaps.

Even though Judy had already seen Nick walking inside of the monument without worry, even though this area was completely strange to him, Judy kept his instincts alert in case of possible danger and entered with caution to inside of the monument.

But once Judy stepped for a couple-four steps inside and allowed her eyes to get used to the slight darkness (that was soon withdrawn by the dawn's sunlight that slowly but certainly intruded inside of the monument through of the corner's gaps), she suddenly halted herself for a moment in front of the amazing sight.

There was a cave paintings painted to the inner surfaces of the monument's stone plates.

Of course this should not be so amazing as Judy had already seen the cave paintings in the cavern near of her tribe's village, but this monument's inner space and in the upright position standing stone plates were much larger than what her village's cavern ever was and enabled so much space for hundreds... no, for thousands cave paintings.

Majority of the cave paintings described the wide forests with the mighty trees, long rivers, vast plains reaching far to the horizon, and the majestic and up into the skies reaching mountains and the high waterfalls... and all of that was beneath of the sky full of clouds and bright sun. And along with them had been also painted a thousands of paintings of all kinds of animals which she had seen in the paintings of her own tribe's cavern.

However, Judy noticed that the only error between of these paintings and the ones in her tribe's caverns was that these ones, both environments and the animals, were both ancient and primitively painted, lacking noticeably the far more careful and characteristic details of her tribe's cavern's paintings. Such of lack of characteristic details made some of the the paintings various animals to look either deformed-looking, gallant-looking and majestic or even fierce and vicious.

And another error between of the paintings was that the animals were shown to be walking on all fours and living by their primitive animal instincts rather than by the way how the animals nowadays are living, which told to Judy that these paintings were most likely painted when the animals were evolved enough to their nowadays anthropomorphic selves physically and by their intelligence.

"Wow... Isn't this great?" Nick said amazed of all of this.

By saying this, Nick inadvertently reminded Judy about the fact between of the animals living either in the herds/packs/tribes or in solitary: all the animals living in the packs, herds and tribes - just like her Bunnyburrow tribe back in home - has the common hobby to paint their tribe's the most significant moments - their own history - to the walls to remind the tribe members of those events and teach their offspring about them and their meaning. However, those animals living either in solitary or in the small families living animals like foxes doesn't have such of hobby.

And while Nick wandered off while watching the paintings on the walls, Judy moved to the opposite direction of the open space while eyeing the paintings.

While eyeing the paintings, Judy's eye caught something that caught her interest.

There in one spot of the wall and in the middle of all of these animal paintings was some paw prints in the wall, that were all surrounded by the long time dried dark toned paint and all of them seemed to be resemble by their shape and size the bunnies' front paws... meaning that maybe all of these paintings were made by the first evolved and ancient rabbits, her tribe's ancestors.

Judy stared at those paw prints while heading slowly towards them. Her expression on her faces while looking at the paw prints was like she showing the respect towards their now and long time deceased makers... whom most likely were the rabbits like her, formerly of course.

And once she was standing in front of the prints, out of her instincts and without even noticing it, Judy slowly lifted up her left fox paw and pressed it gently onto one of the bunnies' paw prints.

Judy kept her fox paw against the wall and onto the rabbit's paw print for a moment, while the paw prints on the wall reminded her greatly about the wall full of her own ancestors' paw prints back in her Bunnyburrow's tribe's cavern... into which she was one day destined to make her own paw print among of the passed ones.

Judy could even hear her mother's silently echoing words in her mind... from that day when she had received her totem from her mother.

 _"Let friendship guide your actions in your path, then one day you'll be a mature woman. And when you do, we'll place your mark among of those of our ancestors."_

Judy let out a deep sigh and briefly closed her eyes as the memories of her childhood, preteen and young adulthood times back in her Bunnyburrow tribe's home village and with her dear friends and beloved family filled her mind with the mental flashbacks. Judy smiled at the mental flashbacks of her warm and lovely times with her mother, her daredevil adventures with her father and her funny and memorable playing times - hide and seek, swimming, fishing, and playing tag game - with her siblings and friends in the village, at the riverbank and in the forest nearby of their village. She really missed those old times. She missed her beloved family: her beloved mother, her beloved father, all her beloved little brothers and sisters and her big brothers and sisters, even that nuisance big sister Jill. And from deep in her heart, Judy wished to be soon capable to return back to her family and friends in her home village.

But when Judy soon removed her paw from the wall and from onto the paw print in the wall, there was a large canine's paw print marked to the wall, sealing the rabbit's paw print inside of it.

That bitterly and sadly reminded Judy about the fact that why she was unable to go back to her village, to her friends and family, and which had most likely destroyed her chance to mark her own paw print against the wall among of her ancestors... her current form and status as the fox. And she knew too well that it would still take a lot, a lot time before he could turn back to rabbit she once was and finally return home to her family.

But it of course couldn't undone her inability to mark her paw print among of her ancestors' after willingly abandoning her totem and maybe a little recklessly and arrogantly rejecting the Spirits because of her totem's shape and its meaning... and most importantly, the tragic incident with the particular predator from her totem.

However, Judy quickly swept such of thoughts and displeasing memories aside and turned away from the paw prints to the rest of the paintings. And as her eyes slowly switched from each animal painting to another, she could even hear in her mind a silently and deeply echoing sounds of the animal ancestors: such like the trumpeting sound of the woolly mammoths, barks and howling of the wolves, roar of the saber-tooth tigers and mountain lions, bellow of the large bears, woolly rhinoceros and musk oxen, echoing clashing of the antlers of the moose, deer, caribous, woolly bighorn sheep, neighing of the horses, scream of the eagles and even the deep hum of the whales.

The unlimited number of ancient cave paintings kept going upper and upper along the wall until they stopped to the border between of the wall and the huge flat rock forming the ceiling above of the monument.

Also the ceiling of the monument had the cave paintings which, however, were combined into a one painting that took a large portion, if not the entire space of the ceiling of the monument. This painting was also noticeably a bigger and lot of different by its appearance compared to the hundreds of other cave paintings and it even spread to the upper parts of every wall of this monument.

Judy slowly lifted her head up to have a good look at the painting, that described a gigantic spiral that was made of from four from the central of the ceiling widening and spreading lines, that were widely flaming and waving like the northern lights in the sky and yet they were painted with red, orange and yellow paint. And yet these the northern lights describing lines were filled with the paintings of woolly mammoths, woolly rhinoceros, musk oxen, moose, deer, caribous, woolly bighorn sheep, wild horses, bears, wolves, saber-tooth-tigers, lynxes, cougars, otters, woodchucks, rabbits, turtles, squirrels, skunks, opossums, porcupines, foxes, raccoons, badgers, wild boars, weasels, beavers, chipmunks, mice, small birds, eagles, gooses and seagulls, salmons and killer whales.

"The Spirits?" Judy said in whisper and this time with a newfound respective tone, quickly guessing that of whom that painting in the ceiling described.

Judy followed with her eyes one of the painting's the Northern Lights describing line down from the ceiling to the stone wall, where it remained in the upper part of the wall, but beneath of which was more paintings, above of which had been written something in the ancient native language.

Luckily for Judy, her mother had taught her their people's ancient language during of her childhood in case if it comes to use, so Judy was somewhat able to understand that what in each writing said in the common language.

Judy turned at first to the upper writing that was wrote with the reddish brown paint in between of the Northern Lights and the painting of the Earth surface, in which was reading " _THE WORLD IS FULL OF SECRETS... WONDERS... AND MAGIC_ ".

Around of the writing was the paintings that quite resembled the tadpoles, except that they were all were painted into blue and they were surrounded by with the white paint painted row of short length lines that most likely described the glowing light. The entire painting also described them to reach from the Northern Lights to the surface of the Earth.

The painting strongly reminded Judy about her strange encounter with those in the air floating and blue light glowing lights from the heaven on the top of that peak where she met her father's spirit and got changed into the fox.

Judy turned then to the next writing that was above of next and gigantic painting, that described the forest switching its appearance between seasons: such like winter and spring/summer. And in the writing above of these two paintings was reading " _THE COLD AND LONG WINTER TURNS TO WARM AND BLOOMING SPRING_ ".

The paintings left side described the forest under the season of winter, where the sky was painted to green and it was full of snowflakes. The ground, trees and bushes were covered by snow and the small lake was frozen, and into the forest also had been painted the several animals that keep going throughout the cold and harshness of winter while beneath of the snow and ground had been painted the animals that go through the winter by hibernation. And when turning her eyes and head to the painting's right side, the sky was pure blue, sun was shining above of the forest that was clean from the snow and ice and was blooming in its fresh colors of the green leaves of trees and bushes and different colored flowers, and the forest itself was completely filled with all kinds of animals, which numbers was two times bigger than what in the painting's winter side.

Judy then moved to the next painting's writing, in which was reading " _THE SMALL THINGS BECOMES A BIG_ ". The painting beneath of the writing described a running fawn of a caribou, that was growing in size, age and appearance from the fawn to an adult caribou.

Judy then moved from that the next paintings, which described at least sixteen animals: a mammoth, saber-tooth tiger, musk ox, a moose, caribou, white-tail deer, bighorn sheep, a grizzly bear, wolf, fox, raccoon, otter, woodchuck, rabbit and turtle, all of them standing in two long rows on the wall. Judy lifted her eyes on the writing above of the painting and read what it was reading.

" _ONE THING ALWAYS CHANGES INTO ANOTHER THING_ ".

In the case of the painting, _primitive animal becomes anthropomorphized through of the evolution._

All sixteen animals in the painting went through the evolution that made each one of them the sentient beings: first they were all primitive-minded, on their instincts living and on all fours walking animals from the days of old, until they reached to the next step in evolution. The next step in evolution described the animals starting to stand up and walk on two legs but they were hunchbacked and remained to live on their third step in evolution described the animals' standing position starting to straighten up, their hind legs started to straighten up as well and they became half primitive and half intelligent. And in the fourth and final step in the evolution, the animals started to walk in the upright position and became far more intelligent, reaching to the point of having ability to speech and thinking. And they intelligence also reached to the point that the animals started to learn to make and use the toys, weapons, cloths, huts, baskets, anything from the givings of the nature.

And after passing that painting, Judy's eye caught some other painting too from nearby and turned her full attention towards it.'

The painting described the stump of the thick tree, around of which had been gathered two large groups. The members of the group in the left side of the stump were all rabbits and the members of the another group in the right side of the stump were all red foxes whom had bared their teeth at the rabbits. All of them, the rabbits and foxes alike, were holding the paw-made spears, knives, clubs and bows in their paws and some of them even had the war paint on their faces. They all looked like they were about to clash on each other

However, there was with a red-brown paint painted large rabbit standing between of the nearly clashing opponents on the stump, having spread its arms to high and looking directly into the sky, where the _Northern Lights_ waved against the sky and the Spirit-forms of the animals ran along of them above of the rabbit and warring opponents.

Judy immediately recognized the rabbit standing on the stomp, from the stories told her by her grandfather.

" _Hariarhael._ " Judy whispered quietly and with the deep respect for the ancestor of her bloodline and her whole tribe.

With her thoughts and eyes deeply focused on the painting of her ancestor and to the painting's plot, Judy totally forgot everything else around of her for a while, until suddenly...

"I see that you've took a deep interest of that one, don't you Judy?" Nick suddenly asked from her, having appeared out of nowhere to stand next to Judy to stare at the same painting in front of them on the wall.

However, Nick's all sudden appearance in next of deeply to the painting focused Judy and speaking so unexpectedly snapped Judy out of her thoughts and startled her so badly, that she let out the loud and frightened shriek while jumping a step away from Nick and onto her left foot and covering herself with her arms, right leg and tail.

Judy's frightened reaction to Nick's sudden appearance caused the fox cub to chuckle with relish.

"Sorry about spooking you like that, but you shouldn't have let down your guard for so long period time, Judy. Next time, instead of the small and an innocent fox cub, it might be either wolf or lynx, and in the worst case either bear, cougar or saber-tooth tiger, 'politely' asking you for the lunch if you leave your guard down for so long next time." Nick advised while still chuckling at Judy's reaction.

"'Innocent fox' huh? Bah!" Judy muttered out of annoyance and an embarrassment for foolishly letting her guard down and allowing Nick - well, better Nick than any other fox-eating predator - to take her out of surprise from behind, even though it was not what the cub meant to do, while lowering down her arms, leg and tail and relaxing herself.

However, Judy didn't want to start another fierce argument like what they had earlier in the morning. So instead of losing her temper and starting to angrily shout at Nick, she decided to take a deep breath and calm down before that she could chasten Nick far more gentler way without raising her voice to the angry level.

"What if next time you call me instead of appearing out of nowhere next to me and scaring me almost dead?" Judy suggested while walking to Nick.

Nick shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry, but there's no room for the "Hi! Name's Nick. Nice to meet you." thing in survival in the wild nature. You either live with your guard up and all senses alert or the nature will simply and literally 'remove' you." It's the nature of the law and you should know it." Nick responded.

Judy simply snorted to this in 'whatever' attitude, because in her opinion everything what Nick had just said fits perfectly to the foxes - due the foxes being loners - while she and her kind (rabbits) are more accustomed to seek the safety from the groups, to protect each other from the dangers and live in the tribes instead of living in wild and constantly keep the senses in full alert for any sign and form of danger. The only problem for the rabbits is the danger of their natural predators - foxes, wolves, lynxes, forest cats, badgers, weasels, hawks and owls - from outside of their tribes, against of which the rabbits rally together and both help and support each other to fend off the danger.

Nick then turned to the painting.

"Anyhow, I guess that you know about the story about the Great Peace-making between of the warring foxes and those long-ears... made by that Big One long-ear a centuries ago" Nick said as he pointed with her finger at the painting of Hariarhael standing on the stomp between of foxes and rabbits.

"Hariarhael." Judy corrected strictly like offended by Nick calling her honored ancestor as "Big One long-ear".

A slightly surprised Nick turned to Judy, looking at her in confusion.

"Pardon me. Who?" Nick questioned.

"Hariarhael. One of the most honored ancestors among of the rabbits, in case you didn't know." Judy responded, while preventing herself with all of her willpower from revealing to Nick that Hariarhael was her ancestor in blood and the very first chieftain of her tribe of Bunnyborrow, because Judy knew that revealing her big secrets to Nick in the fur of foxes would most likely make the cub to think that she was totally insane... just like those two moose did. "And yes... I know all about of the Great Peace-making between of the warring foxes and the rabbits a many centuries ago. My own grandfather used to tell me about it a many times over in the evening campfire when I was a little."

"If I correctly remember, a centuries ago when we had took a first couple steps in the evolution, two species: the rabbits and foxes we're at the savage war with each other. The rabbits were vastly advanced and evolved and they had their paw-made weapons and their vast numbers as their advantages against the foxes. The foxes, however, still and mostly maintained their feral instincts and their natural ferocity. But even though they were still vulnerable to the rabbits' weapons and outnumbered by their numbers, even one hunting fox managed to cause the huge casualties among of the rabbits."

"Those were a very dark times, when many rabbits were hunted down, torn into the shreds and eaten by the foxes - and the foxes also placed the killed rabbits' heads and hung each killed rabbit's ears or paws to hang from their necks as a necklaces and trophies - and also many foxes got hunted down and skinned by the rabbits, whom then hung the fox skins to hang against the tree trunks and placed their decapitated heads to hang from the heads of the spears to either mark their territories or left them as a warning for the foxes or to scare them about the fate the warned ones would share. During the war, many rabbit tribes' villages were burned down by the foxes, and they even proceeded by destroying the entire rabbit warrens by sealing all the burrows save for one, and then they suffocated all the trapped rabbits inside by making fires in front of the spared burrow and unleashing the thick and poisonous smoke inside of the warrens. And in retaliation, the fox families had been mercilessly slaughtered by the rabbits, even the fox kittens were granted no mercy."

"The both opponents nearly destroyed each other in the last battle, which was supposed to go through on the battlefield in middle of which was standing the stomp of the fallen tree. However, it was then when the Spirits intervened by sending Hariarhael to stop the war and he did so by jumping out of nowhere onto the stomp in the middle and holding both opponents back. Manny rabbits, respectful and fearful of Hariarhael, asked him to protect them from the foxes while the foxes ordered him to begone and let them to finish what the rabbits started in the first place, or at least so they claimed. However, as neutral and serving as a messenger of the Spirits, Hariarhael refused to do anybody's bidding. Instead, he strictly lectured both the rabbits and foxes for using their gift of evolution wrong by going to the war against each other for the natural reasons - the rabbit's prejudiced fear towards the foxes and the foxes' undying lust for the rabbits' flesh - and reminded them that the Spirits gifted them with the evolution only to erase their species from their feral ways and take the step to that that what they can be instead of destroying each other. That's why Hariarhael gave to the rabbits and foxes a two choice: live together in peace without killing each other or be exiled if the terms of peace aren't fulfilled. Majority of the rabbits and the foxes accepted Hariarhael's terms of peace, casting away the arms and even tried to live in peace and harmony. However, according to the end of the story, one of opposite sides eventually betrayed Hariarhael's trust by disrespecting the terms of peace and kept killing out for fun." Judy said, finishing the story.

Nick, surprisingly to Judy, nodded in agreement.

You're telling me, Judy. Take a look at that pillar outside." Nick suggested, pointing at the thick and stone pillar outside of the monument.

Judy looked at the pillar, into which smooth upright side had been painted something.

Slowly and certainly, and Nick right behind of her, Judy exited from the monument and walked towards the painting to have a clear picture of it.

And once she did, Judy gasped.

The painting was describing the gray rabbit armed with the hunting spear, and the rabbit was battling with the great red fox who had its claws extended and fangs bared.

Judy's eyes slowly but certainly narrowed and her expression hardened/darkened as he stared at the painting's red fox, recalling in her mind her and her family's mortal encounters with the great red fox back in he glacier near of her tribe's village and on the mountain top.

Nick moved next to her to look at the painting... with an uncomfortable expression on his face as he stared at the rabbit in the painting.

"Here's the truth what the others, which others interpret as lies. And that's why those long-eared monsters are really scary among of my kind." Nick said as the fox kitten was partially hiding behind of Judy's back.

What Nick had just said, caught Judy out of surprise. Judy's expression softened immediately and he looked down at Nick.

"What are you talking about Nick? "Foxes afraid of rabbits?" Shouldn't it be the other way round between of the prey and its natural predator?" Judy questioned.

"Yes, it should be. But it was for the most part the foxes whom were far more willing to accept this Hariarhael-guy's terms of peace and move on for the better future. Even though Hariarhael wasn't one of their kind bu saw his words worthy enough for trying. Even more than what the majority of the rabbits did. They remorselessly deceived their very own example by pretending to accepting his terms of peace and secretly kept hunting the red foxes and skinning them for fun and out of prejudiced fear for them. They even covered their actions by making and spreading the false excuses for their actions that turned many other animals against the foxes and leaving them at the mercy of the rabbits, along with the other fox-eaters. And as an result, the foxes that mastered the wall painting, painted this painting to every rabbit made monument and inhabited cavern to remind the future generations of the rabbits about their ancestors' treachery on the foxes and even their own example figure. And it is said that these paintings are sealed by the Spirits that even painting on them would not cover them." Trust me, Judy. I know this, because my mother knows and told me about this due to her family roots were originally from those times, and the story has passed from generation to generation, always up to me." Nick explained.

Judy was deeply stricken and shocked after Nick had finished his part of the story's end.

'Rabbits betrayed their own example figure's trust for fun and out of prejudiced fear for foxes?'

Now Judy found herself in the mental conflict between the versions of the one story, told by her grandfather and Nick. Judy wasn't now even sure which story was pure and whichever was created by their ancestors' lies was created. Of course Judy loved her grandfather due to him being her family member and whom she wouldn't expect to lie to her nor her siblings... but Nick looked like, behaved, and talked like any honest person, who's pure enough to be above of the lies, even for the fox.

However, though still and from now on in the mental conflict between the the purity of the stories and yet without the final answer, Judy even started to feel the spark of shame and slightly even disgust towards her ancestors doings in behind of their own example figure's back.

Judy then silently decided to ask more information from her grandfather about the story about the Great Peace-making between of the foxes and rabbit, once she has changed back into the rabbits and returned back home.

"Come on, Nick. Let's keep going." Judy said, and both the foxes left from the monument and its cave paintings behind for good.

 **TO BE CONTINUE...**

 **I hope that you enjoyed reading this chapter.**

 **I hope that I can update my story again soon enough.  
**

 **To the next time.**


	21. Chapter 21: Rams

**FOX OF FRIENDSHIP CHAPTER 21. RAMS  
**

 **SO, ENJOY THE READING.**

Later, after leaving the ancient monument and its cave paintings behind, Judy and Nick arrived to the steep rocky hillside, where grew some pines and spruce either in a small groups or in a small distances away from each other. And while traveling further, Judy had also voluntarily offered to take Nick into backpack and was carrying the fox kitten on her shoulders.

Even though Nick's size as 8-12 years old fox-kitten corresponded somewhat the size of an adult rabbit, which had led Judy to think that Nick may weight more than what it looks due to his age, size and species. However, once she had lifted Nick off the ground and placed him onto her shoulders, Judy noticed that Nick was actually quite light for his age. Afterwards Judy realized that even though spending a few passed days as a fox, she has not taken into account the newfound strength of her new canine form at all... and bit berated herself in her mind for thinking such of thing about Nick.

Carrying Nick on her shoulders and his light weight also somewhat reminded Judy about the times back in the Bunnyburrow village, when she had given the similar shoulder-rides to her younger siblings out for fun every time when she was not in her household chores with her mother or learning to survive in the wild under his father's teachings.

However, even though Nick was light, it still brought some difficulties when Judy attempted to keep her balance on the steep rocky hillside while trying to move forwards. However, Judy didn't voiced in Nick's presence at all.

"So? You recognize anything? Any familiar landscapes? Or maybe you can't even see anything past of my "fat-head"?" Judy asked, jokingly calling her own head as a fat-head just like Jill and Nick had both earlier called it so.

Both foxes chuckled at this.

Judy then decided to ask something. "So, do you really think that I have a fat head?"

"Not exactly, Judy. You don't have a fat head. I was just a little pissed off back then that I came up with such of insult. Sorry about that." Nick said.

"Oh, c'mon! Tell me. I'm dying to know." Judy pleaded.

It was then when Nick decided to ask from her something. "Well, you did kinda reacted like someone else has called your head "fat" a many times over. Who actually did you even put that though in your head in the first place."

Judy chuckled at the question, as she recalled in her mind the last time and some of the previous times she had been called "fat head" by _someone_ she knew.

"Well, my big sister used to call me "fat-head" every time she got the opportunity for it. It was usually only then when she got either bored and decided to tease me a little to satisfy herself and her boredom, in those times when I did something stupid or if I got tasked to do something which I did forget to do for some reasons I cannot remember, or when she came up to give a very sarcastic comments to something I said confidently or proudly or when I showed it as a question to the young ones., adding that "fat-head" insult in her comments every time." Judy explained, as she recalled several tensed times with Jill when she had teased her with that "fat-head" insult.

Nick was taken by this information. "Wow... I think your really had a very awful big sister, Judy." he said, commenting Judy's big sister.

Judy shook her heard negatively.

"Well, she knew how to be arrogant jerk more often on these days, but you know, she wasn't always like that. Before she grew older, she and I were a very close to each other. We loved spending time with each other by playing hide-and-seek in the forest, picking up the berries to eat and empty honey from the beehive - which sometimes left us full of bee stings - or either swimming and splashing the water on each other in the lake. And we also did a lot of crazy things... like going investigate the glacier, riding on the backs of the mammoths, jumping on the rocks of the waterfalls, deliberately or accidentally causing the stampedes among of the deer mammals and even mischievously teasing the hermit old cougar. They were the funny times in our childhood 'till she eventually grew up, and matured... though not enough as she became a boring jerk." Judy said.

"So... where's she now? Is she still alive?" Nick asked.

"She's fine, but... we kinda got _separated_ from each other a some time ago." Judy simply said, skipping the further details behind of their "separation".

"Hod did you two got separated?" Nick asked again.

However, Judy decided that it was time to switch the subject, because she didn't want to tell Nick a whole truth what really happened before she and Jill got separated, knowing that even if she would tell, Nick would never understand.

"Um... let's skip that for another time, shall we? And let's go back to my earlier question my "fat head", okay? You see Nick, your answer did not really satisfy me. So I kinda want to know your theory that justifies your claim that I do not have a fat head." Judy quickly said.

Nick remained a bit silent, hinting Judy that the fox kitten was a bit skeptical of this sudden switch of subjects. However, Nick shrugged his shoulders and began to observe Judy's head a little, before giving his answer.

"Well ... not exactly as fat as with the bears, though honestly I gotta admit that I need to lean my head further either to left or right to have a better view of the direction we're exactly going." Nick started.

Judy chuckled after hearing that. "I knew it... but what did you mean with "not exactly as fat as with the bears"?"

"Well, the heads of the bears are much bigger and wider than foxes, although it may be due to either fat or thick fur. And if they hunch their shoulders a little, their head wouldn't seem too big. You probably should try that too." Nick replied.

"Oh, really? And how I am supposed to do that?" Judy asked, before she landed on her fours to the ground, much to surprise but also amusement of Nick..

"You mean like this?!" Judy asked as she playfully hunched her right shoulder upwards, causing Nick to swing to her left side.

"Or like this?" Judy asked again as she playfully hunched her left shoulder upwards, causing Nick to swing to her right side.

With each time, the fox kitten held tightly with his front paws from Judy's neck fur while laughing heartily.

"Or how about this?" Judy asked as she playfully bounced up to the air, with both of her shoulders hunched upwards and head lowered down, and her bounce also caused Nick to bounce into the air a little bit 'till he landed back on her back before Judy herself landed back on her feet to the ground.

Both foxes were heartily laughing to their a little funny moment, until they heard something above of them bumping loudly against something that caused the echoing sound.

The foxes looked turned their attentions to the direction from where the sound came... and they noticed the mammals on the higher rocky edge.

"Hey, look! Rams!" Nick exclaimed.

There was rams indeed. One of the rams' wool was brownish-white and the ram himself was a quite thin, while another ram's wool was a black and he was much bulkier than the other one. Both of them had the large curving horns. The rams were apparently headbutting with each others for a sport.

"Maybe they can give us directions." Nick guessed.

"Is that a very wise idea? Rams might be sometimes a bit cranky and territorial animals. And not to mention what they think about us foxes. Who knows if they may decide to ram us off from this hillside. It would be nasty and painful in afterwards." Judy said, remembering all too well that one neighboring tribe of rams used to be a quite territorial, cranky and even aggressive towards anything and anyone they encountered on their wandering.

Judy also remembered having heard once that the village of neighboring tribe of rabbits got completely destroyed when angry tribe of raiding rams stampeded surprisingly and unexpectedly thru the village, smashing down the rabbits' home-tents, ramming or trampling every rabbit on their way to death and plundering everything that survived from their stampede, leaving only ruins and broken stuff for that village's survivors to pointlessly salvage.

"Well, if we're nice to them and ask something from them with nice and polite tone, they might be cooperate enough to tell us that where we should go from here." Nick staid. "Let's go and try."

Judy rolled her eyes but obeyed and began walk towards the headbutting rams. "I'm gonna have a bad feeling about this."

As the foxes headed cautiously towards the foxes, the rams headbutted their horned heads together. The impact caused another loud echoing sound and it also caused the thin one to fly onto his butt.

However, instead of crying in pain, the rams sounded like the hard headbutts made good for them or felt good.

"WHOA!" a thin ram brownish-white bellowed, with such of expression that looked like he had got a pretty bad hit to his head.

"WO HOO, YEAH!" a bulkier black ram bellowed as well with the cocky look on his faces, before shaking its head.

"Wow! That clears up the sinuses, doesn't it, Woolter?" a thin ram asked from the bulkier ram named Woolter.

"Oh, yeah! It does, Jesse." Woolter said back to the thin ram named Jesse.

Jesse then jumped back on his feet.

"Okay, okay! Hit me... hit me again! I want it to be hard and elegant enough." Jesse encouraged with eagerness.

"I think she's looking at me with admiration. _Hello, Sharla, my sweetie. Hehehehee_!" Jesse added with flattering voice as he looked behind of them to the other side of the edge.

there was a camp erected there, where was the rest of the tribe of the mountain sheep, to which Woolter and Jesse most likely belonged as a members. Most of them were females without the big horns like Woolter and Jesse had. The female sheep did not paid any attention to the male rams headbutting each others, except to what they were doing at the moment on their own rocky edges.

One of the female sheep who was sitting on the rock closest to the males, however, was indeed looking at Woolter and Jesse. This female sheep name was Sharla, as Jesse had called her so, and she had a curly, black wool, blue eyes and a large tuft of wool on the top of her head. However, instead of looking at Jesse with admiration, Sharla merely rolled her eyes and shook her head in annoyance and embarrassment for Jesse, implying that this isn't the first time when Jesse had tried with flattery and showing off his and Woolter's headbutting to gain her attention and admiration.

However, Jesse seemed not to care if Sharla apparently rejected his attempts to gain her attention and admiration.

Woolter then spoke up, looking at Sharla as well. "Yes, she's checking me out with well-hidden admiration, all right. _Hey, baby._ " Woolter said with flattery, sending some flying kisses towards Sharla, implying that he also had the crush for Sharla as well.

Jesse was apparently offended of this.

"Oh, no, no, no! Come on, you nitwit! Are you out of your head?! She's looking at me! She ain't interested of such of fatso like you!" Jesse said with offensive tone.

However, Woolter remained calm, even in front of such of insult. "Oh, is that so? I think that you meant that she's looking in disgust at your ugly mug." Woolter countered.

Jesse was even more offended of this insult. "Excuse me, my WHAT?!"

However, before Jesse did anything else, he turned to Sharla for a moment. "Excuse me, miss. One sec, okay?"

And with that, Jesse butted his head against Woolter's with force. "IT'S GO-TIME, BABY!"

Woolter instantly resumed his defensive mode and butted his head back against Jesse's in counter. "OF, YOU WANNA GO, DO YOU?!" he countered with words.

"YOU BET I DO, YOU FATSO!" Jesse shot back!

"THEN BRING IT ON, YOU UGLY TRAVESTY OF GENTLEMAMMAL!" Woolter countered.

"MORE HORNS, LESS WORDS!" Jesse shot back again.

While the rams were about to engage each other, Judy and Nick arrived to the perfectly fitting distance bellow the edge on which the rams were.

"Uh, excuse me!" Judy said in attempt to gain the rams' attention.

Woolter instantly heard Judy's voice calling for them from beneath of them. "WHA...?! Eh, hold on! Hold on! Hold on!"

The rams instantly broke up from the fight and looked down from their rocky edge, and saw Judy and Nick down there.

Neither of the rams weren't quite pleased of seeing the couple of red foxes moving close of their camp for the rams' comfort... and even less pleased of that that the foxes had came to disturb their headbutting moment.

"Uh, excuse me but will you..." Judy started, until Woolter a bit rudely cut her off.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" Woolter bellowed loudly and rudely, much to Judy's annoyance.

 _ **WHAT DO YOU WANT?!** What do you want?! what do you want?! _ Woolter's cry echoed in the air before fading off, leaving both the rams to look around of them in confusion.

"What was that? who was that?" Woolter asked in confusion, like not even recognizing his own echoing voice.

"Uh... just a minute, miss vixen." Jesse said to Judy, even a bit more politely than what Woolter had spoke to them.

Jesse then turned to... from wherever he believed Woolter's echoing was coming from.

"HEY! YOU THERE! SHUT UP!" Jesse bellowed to the air.

 _ **HEY! YOU THERE! SHUT UP!** _ Jesse's voice echoed in the air, but Jesse believed it to be someone else saying him the same words.

"NO, YOU SHUT UP!" Jesse yelled back.

 ** _NO, YOU SHUT UP!_ ** Jesse's voice echoed again.

"WE GOT A BUSINESS IN HERE, SO SHUT UP!" Woolter shouted.

 ** _WE GOT A BUSINESS IN HERE, SO SHUT UP!_** Woolter's voice echoed again in the air.

"NO, YOU SHUT UP!" Woolter shouted back.

 ** _NO, YOU SHUT UP!_** Woolter's voice echoed back.

"HEY, WILL YOU SHUT UP?!" Jesse shouted again, starting to get mad when his imagined oppose wouldn't "shut up".

 _ **HEY, WILL YOU SHUT UP?!**_ Jesse's voice echoed back.

Now Jesse was getting mad.

"I'M WARNING YOU, JUST SHUT UUUUUUUUUUP!" Jesse roared.

 ** _I'M WARNING YOU, JUST SHUT UUUUUUUUUUP!_** Jesse's roar echoed back.

Though a bit dumbfounded when witnessing the rams yelling at their own echoing voices, Judy and Nick were also amused of this.

"Imagine that I thought that the moose are the most stupid animals." Judy said to Nick, considering to change her opinions between of moose and mountain sheep.

Nick chuckled. "I think that their horns are screwed on too tight." he said, causing Judy to chuckle a little.

As the foxes were about to leave to their own echoing voices shouting rams behind of their backs and continue their own journey along the rocky hillside, Nick began suddenly to sniff the air, like he had caught something familiar scent.

"Hey... wait a second." Nick said, as he jumped off Judy's back and moved a bit further ahead along the rocky hillside and to behind of the rams' higher rocky ledge.

Nick kept sniffing the air to catch up the more familiar scents from their surroundings before giving his final opinion.

"You know what? We actually got lucky, because I know this place!" Nick declared!

"What? You do?" Judy asked, feeling her hope getting the fire again after hearing those words.

"Yeah! I've been in here! Yeah! This happened to be part of my and my mother's route to the south. It wondered indeed that why it both looked and smelled so familiar!" Nick stated, as the fox kitten rushed further ahead through of the hillside's rock and fallen logs.

"Then... does that means that we're on the right path?" Judy asked, wanting to be with one hundred percent sure that they had found the route.

"Yeah! And best of all... the Foxtopia and three-pointed Mountain you're heading for aren't far away. WE'RE ALMOST THERE, JUDY!" Nick confirmed as he rushed first to another rocky ledge at the end of this rocky hillside.

Judy sighed out of relief before she chuckled heartily. Nick's confirmed information enlightened her mood greatly and gave even more hope for her wish to turn back to rabbit and return to home to her family.

However, it was short-lived after what the rocky ledge revealed from behind of it.

"We just have to cross this field." Nick stated.

Behind and bellow of the ledge was, much to Judy's surprise and horror, far beyond the horizon reaching lava-fields.

This place has certainly been a lush and forested valley long ago with green and life, but now, it was dramatically changed due to some volcanic eruption nearby: the whole valley was destroyed and transformed into a horrific place. All green, lush and beautiful was gone and the ground of the valley was covered by the solidified though yet steaming red lava. There was also the different-sized ponds, and flowing rivers full of steaming and bubbly molten rock. There was also a dead trees in everywhere, which were either still standing or have fallen over to the ground and got covered by the lava. This whole place also looked so ominous enough that all outsiders, to whom this place is a complete unfamiliar, can easily get lost in there: the sky above and the air within the lava-field was covered by a thick cloud of steam that greatly bothered the visibility, and viewed from above, the whole place looks like a huge labyrinth without a way out. And finally, there was a repeating ominous and loud banging sound that came from the valley. The reason to that was that that down there was a countless secret and sealed cavities beneath of the floor of lava, which were filled with a hot volcanic steam all of time, until the pressure grew too high to bear and the cavities exploded loudly into hot and steamy Geysers.

A dumbfounded Judy stared down at the fields with her mouth hanging open.

"Through of the lava-field?! You gotta be kidding me, aren't you?! Is there no other way to the other side than this?!" Judy said frantically, questioning with the great concern the whole idea of crossing the volcanic lava-field.

"Nope." Nick replied, giving this simple answer to both Judy's questions: that he wasn't kidding and that there was no other way through of this to the other side.

 **TO BE CONTINUE...**

 **I hope that you enjoyed reading this chapter.**

 ** **I try to update again soon next time, b** ecause next chapter, there's gonna be the fight between Judy and Jill at the lava-fields, and I have good ingredients for it. Count on it. **

**To the next time.**


End file.
